The Delhi High Court on Monday stayed a Central Information Commission order to disclose the individual scores of the candidates who appeared in the Civil Services examinations this year on a petition filed by the Union Public Service Commission.
Justice Anil Kumar granted the stay till January 16 on the ground that the disclosure of such information will entail the violation of provisions of the Official Secrets Act and harm the integrity of the UPSC.
The UPSC filed a petition in the court challenging the Central Information Commission's November 13 order to disclose within two weeks the marks secured by candidates in the civil services (preliminary) examination this year.
In its writ petition, the UPSC sought directions to the CIC for an ex-parte interim stay of its order on the ground that disclosure of information will undermine the entire examination procedure and cause irreparable loss to it.
A full bench of the CIC, headed by Chief Information Commissioner Wajahat Habibullah, had passed the order on separate applications filed by over 100 unsuccessful candidates seeking disclosure of marks obtained by them in the preliminary examinations.
The appeal to the CIC under the RTI Act followed a UPSC decision in September this year that information sought by around 2,500 IAS aspirants like cut-off marks, individual scores, scaling criteria and model answers were top secret and disclosure of such 'crucial' documents will lead to violation of intellectual property.
