Overruling UPSC’s notion that the disclosure of marks would amount to compromising with the merit of the candidates, a Division Bench of Chief Justice A P Shah and Justice S Muralidhar observed that making such information public would not harm the interest of the commission or any third party.

“We observed that the documents submitted by the commission in a sealed cover are not of such nature that can be characterised as secret, or of a type the disclosure of which would not be in public interest,” said the Bench.

Wednesday’s decision upholds the single judge-order on April 17, 2007, by which the CIC’s ruling to allow disclosure of the marks was favoured by the court.

The Bench also dismissed the apprehension of the UPSC that disclosing the scaling methodology for the preliminary examination may amount to compromise with the merit of the candidates and said, “We are of the view that the apprehension of the UPSC is not well founded.”

The UPSC had approached the High Court against the November 13, 2006 order passed by the CIC, allowing the pleas of candidates seeking details of the marks obtained by them in the preliminary exams.

The commission had earlier submitted that if the information regarding the marks were given to the candidates, then it would be misused by coaching institutes and would hamper the chances of meritorious candidates.

It was also contended by the commission that the scaling system used by it was “very sensitive” and it could not be divulged in an open court.