Six months on, candidates still waiting from answer scripts from KPSC

Over six months after candidates of the 2015 gazetted probationers examination conducted by Karnataka Public Service Commission (KPSC) sought a copy of their evaluated answer scripts, they are yet to receive them. This is despite the Karnataka Information Commission directing the KPSC to provide the answer scripts to the candidates.

Candidates who did not make the final list that was announced in January 2020 have been seeking their evaluated answer scripts from the commission, which has in the past given copies under the Right to Information Act, 2005. However, taking shelter under a 2018 Supreme Court direction, the information officials in the KPSC have been rejecting the applications, said a candidate.

The KPSC took the matter to the High Court of Karnataka for adjudication after the Information Commissioner directed it to share the scripts under RTI.

Now, Leader of the Opposition Siddaramaiah has sought Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa’s intervention on the matter. In a letter to the BJP leader, he pointed out, “The RTI commissioner has directed the KPSC to provide evaluated answer scripts to the candidates. Despite these orders, candidates are unnecessarily being made to run around courts. The candidates, after years of preparation, appeared for the exam, and they have the right to see their evaluated answer scripts.”

The KPSC conducted the 2015 gazetted probationers exam to fill 428 posts from August 2017 and released the final list of selected candidates in January this year. The commission had, under RTI provisions, provided evaluated answer scripts of the main exam to candidates in the 2008, 2010, 2011, and 2015 gazetted probationers batches.

Mr. Siddaramaiah said the KPSC has been rejecting the RTI applications from candidates citing the 2018 apex court order that pertained to a preliminary exam conducted by the Union Public Service Commission in 2010. The court, however, in subsequent directions to the Public Service Commission in Uttar Pradesh and also the Institute of Company Secretaries of India, ensured the evaluated answer scripts were sent to candidates under RTI, the Congress leader pointed out.

The former Chief Minister also quoted the top court’s order on an SLP filed by Aditya Bandopadhya and others against the Central Board of Secondary Education on the definition of information and how the evaluated answer script that contained the “opinion of the examiner” was “information” under the RTI Act.

KPSC Secretary G. Sathyavathi was not available for comment.

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