TIMES OF INDIA AHMEDABAD EPAPER 19-08-2012

OPEN BOOK ON TESTS


GU answer sheets now in RTI ambit

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Ahmedabad: Gujarat University has decided to allow students to access answer sheets under the Right to Information (RTI) Act. Earlier, Gujarat Technological University (GTU) had taken the same decision.

The decision to release photocopies of answer sheets was taken at a syndicate meeting of GU held on Saturday. Acting GU vice-chancellor Mukul Shah said that the proposal was unanimously accepted.

On an average, about 18,000 students who are not satisfied with their marks apply for reassessment and rechecking.

Now, students wanting a photocopy of answer sheets will have to pay Rs 20 per paper as RTI fees and pay Rs 2 per page for the photocopy. The university has decided to fix a timeframe for raising queries under the RTI Act.

GTU vice-chancellor A K Aggarwal said that the university was planning to scan answer sheets and put them up on its website. He said students could even take printouts of the answer sheets.

In August last year,the Supreme Court had ruled that a certain group of examinees unhappy with scores could ask for their answer sheets under the RTI Act. The group comprised class X and XII students, and those taking entrance exams for professional courses or taking tests for jobs.

A bench of Justice R V Raveendran and Justice A K Patnaik was acting on an appeal filed by the CBSE and West Bengal Board of Secondary Education among others. The boards had challenged the rulings of several information commissioners that directed them to show answer sheets to students.