MSIC tells MPSC to give information

Aizawl, Apr 26: The Mizoram State Information Commission today directed the Mizoram Public Service Commission to give information which it had earlier denied to an applicant.

One Laltanpuia made an application under sub-section(1) of Section 6 of the RTI Act, 2005, for obtaining copy of answer papers in limited departmental examination for promotion to the post of grade IV of the Mizoram ministerial service conducted in February this year.

However, the MPSC rejected the application on grounds that the information sought for is prohibited as per section 27(f) of the MPSC examination guidelines, 2003; it comes under the exempted category as per the decision of Gauhati High Court, Aizawl bench's decision in WP(C) No 97/05 and the information sought for cannot be furnished as per the decision of the Supreme Court in the case of Pramod Kumar Srivasta vs chairman, Bihar public service commission, Patna, and others in civil appellate wherein re-evaluation or giving out Xerox copies of answer scripts cannot be done.

The appellant submitted second appeal to the SIC following which they conducted a hearing today where MPSC secretary-cum- appellant authority C Lalchhandama and MPSC joint secretary-cum-SPIO Tamlal Lohar appeared in person.

The respondents stated that they had rejected the application in order to protect the confidentiality of examination papers, that giving such information may become a trend setter for other public service commissions and may be a burden for others, that MPSC rules do not provide for giving copy of answer sheets and that they were apprehensive of re-evaluation being asked for.

However, the respondents, after examining various provisions of the RTI Act, 2005, accepted that they were over cautious in rejecting the application for information, that under RTI Act, it is mandatory to give the information applied for by the appellant and that giving information under the RTI Act does not have anything to do with possible application for re-evaluation which is under the rules of MPSC.

The SIC's order also stated that the grounds used by the two lower authorities (appellate authority and SPIO of the MPSC) for rejection of the application are not relevant under the RTI Act. The SPIO was therefore directed to give the information applied for.

Mizoram state chief information commissioner Robert Hrangdawla told UNI that this is the first major achievement of the SIC since it started functioning a year back.

UNI