‘Marks obtained in CBSE board exams cannot be given under RTI'

In a significant ruling, the Delhi High Court has held that marks obtained by a student in the CBSE board exams cannot be revealed under the transparency law as it would “defeat” the purpose of the new grading system.

The court set aside the verdict of a single judge Bench and the Central Information Commission, which had asked the Central Board of Secondary Education to reveal marks obtained by a girl in her Class X board examination in 2010.

“We are unable to agree; we feel that the CIC as well as the learned single judge, by directing disclosure of ‘marks', in the regime of ‘grades' have indeed undone what was sought to be done by replacing marks with grades and defeated the very objective, thereof.

“The objective, in replacing the marks with grades, as can be gathered from the documents on record, was to grade students in a bandwidth rather than numerically...,” a Bench of the Acting Chief Justice, Mr A.K Sikri and Mr Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw said.

Writing the judgement, Justice Endlaw said the details of marks, obtained by the student in the 10th board, cannot be termed as an

“information” under the Right to Information Act as its disclosure would defeat the policy of awarding grades instead of marks.

Allowing the plea of the CBSE, it said “no weightage can also be given to the plea of respondent (girl's father) that the marks even if disclosed would not be used for any other purpose.

“The possibility of respondent and his ward, in securing admission and for other purposes, using the said information to secure an advantage over others cannot be ruled out.”

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