Tripura Board to file writ against IC's order on showing answer sheets

Agartala | Friday, Jul 18 2008
The Tripura Board of Secondary Education (TBSE) today decided not to
comply with the direction of Tripura State Information Commission
(TSIC) pertaining to providing evaluated answer sheets to the
students, seeking them under the Right to Information (RTI) Act 2005.

TBSE president Subrata Sengupta told newspersons here that the board
would file writ against the TSIC decision in the High Court.

''If required, the board will rather move the Supreme Court than
supplying evaluated answer scripts to the students,'' Mr Sengupta
said.

TSIC had earlier slapped a penalty of Rs 10,000 to the secretary and
the board's Public Information Officer (PIO) Pratyus Deb on July 15,
for his refusal to supply answer sheets to one Somasree Choudhury of
Agartala. It also directed him to provide the same within the next two
months.

Ms Choudhury, after securing third position in the higher secondary
examination in 2007, applied to the TBSE under the RTI Act for the
copies of the answer scripts and tabulation sheets of Bengali,
Mathematics and Biology.

On being refused, she moved the TSIC for justice and the commission
afterwards directed the TBSE authority to furnish her with the
information sought. It upheld that the evaluated answer sheets and
tabulation sheets were linked with personal information of an
individual and the student had the absolute right to inspect it. But,
TBSE did not comply with the order.

Finally, the commission, advocating fairness and transparency in an
examination process, imposed penalty on the PIO and criticised the
intention of the authority for negating the strict observance of the
principle of natural justice.

Mr Sengupta referred that Orissa High Court, Supreme Court and Central
Information Commission (CIC) had put their views against providing
evaluated answer sheets to the student in different cases earlier.
''If supplying such information becomes a practice, security of the
examiners will be under threat,'' he felt.
...

-- (UNI) --

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