NEW DELHI: If recent decisions by the Central Information Commission are anything to go by, candidates who are not satisfied with their marks may obtain information under the Right to Information Act. However, the Commission is yet to take a final decision on whether they should be allowed to see their answer sheets.

Disposing of an appeal on Monday, the CIC asked the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) to furnish question-wise marks to an appellant, but referred his plea for taking a look at the answer sheets to the Commission's Full Bench.

Rakesh Kumar Gupta had filed the appeal with the CBSE on December 18, 2005, seeking to know the question-wise marks secured by his daughter, Aditi, in Science and Technology paper in the 2005 Class X examination.

The CBSE public information officer (PIO) told Mr. Gupta that the marks awarded were correct and there was no provision to show the answer sheet. However, the PIO did not supply subject-wise marks. Following the rejection of his second appeal, Mr. Gupta approached the CIC.

The PIO told the Commission that the marks obtained by Aditi were checked and found to be correct. However, the CIC asked the CBSE to furnish question-wise marks within 15 days.

On inspecting the answer sheets, the Commission said: "This being a very sensitive issue, [it] has already been referred to a Full Bench in other cases. Hence, the case will be decided on the basis of the judgment of the Full Bench."

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