The Central Information Commission (CIC) has asked the DoPT to restore the practice of publishing detailed paper-wise marks of selected civil services candidates from 2018 onwards. According to it, the practice was stopped after 2017 without any recorded policy decision. The commission said that it hurt transparency in the system.
The CIC’s recommendation came after it was found that the DoPT had no record of any formal decision to stop publishing the detailed marks from 2018.
The commission’s move was necessitated by conflicting positions taken by the UPSC and the DoPT on who holds the detailed marks. While the DoPT said the detailed marks are generated and maintained only by the UPSC, the UPSC told the commission that it shares the detailed break-up of marks with the DoPT and the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA) after the result is declared.
The matter came to light after an RTI application was filed seeking comparative data on the marks obtained by all selected candidates in each General Studies paper, optional subject paper and the Personality Test over 10 years up to 2023.
The applicant said paper-wise marks of selected candidates were publicly disclosed till the 2017 Civil Services Examination, but only aggregate marks have been made available from 2018 onwards.
The CIC noted that despite being given an opportunity the DoPT failed to produce any proof to support the discontinuation of publication of the marks from 2018 onwards. The commission favoured the disclosure of the detailed marks obtained by the selected candidates to ensure transparency and fairness in the selection procedure.
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