NEW DELHI: Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University (GGSIPU) has been served a legal notice on the Rs 1,500 charge for providing students their answer scripts, alleging that the fee charged by the university was in violation with Right To Information Act rules. Whistle for Public Interest (WHIP) has served the notice to the Vice-Chancellor, Registrar and Public Information Officer of GGSIPU to provide the information of answer-scripts as per the cost prescribed under the RTI Act.
The notice, dated December 6, observed that the “answer-script of an examinee is the subject of information under the Right to Information (RTI)” Act, 2005 and can be obtained at the cost of Rs 2 per page. Advocate Paras Jain, member, WHIP, said that the action was taken after a student of the university, approached the group with his grievance against the exorbitant fee of Rs 1,200 for inspection and Rs 1,500 for providing the physical copies of answer-script as per its rules and regulations.
The university declined the student’s request to provide his answer script under RTI. Referring to a Supreme Court judgment in 2011, which held that under RTI, information meant any material including records, documents, opinions, papers among other enumerated items, WHIP told the university to allow its candidates to obtain their answer scripts post examination. “It is astonishing that this university rule is not only arbitrary and unfair but is also the Contempt of the Supreme Court being committed by the Vice-Chancellor, Registrar and Public Information Officer (PIO) of the IP University,” Jain said.
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