Supreme Court To Examine If State PSC Rules Prevail Over RTI Act On Disclosure Of Answer Sheets

The Supreme Court is set to examine whether a State Public Service Commission can fix the stage at which information relating to a recruitment examination is disclosed, and whether candidates can invoke the Right to Information Act, 2005 to seek such information before that stage.

“The question that falls for our consideration in these petition(s) is: “Whether a State Public Service Commission, which is a Constitutional Body, could have its own Rules 2 governing the stage at which Information relating to a public examination conducted by it is to be provided? If yes, then whether a candidate could take recourse to the provisions of the Right to Information Act, 2005 to seek information even prior to that stage?””, the Court observed.

A bench of Justice Manoj Misra and Justice Manmohan stayed an Uttarakhand High Court judgment which had allowed candidates to inspect their answer sheets during the ongoing recruitment process.

The Court was dealing with special leave petitions filed by the Uttarakhand Public Service Commission against the judgment.

The Commission submitted that Rule 45 of the Uttarakhand Public Service Commission (Procedure and Conduct of Business) Rules, 2013 provides that marks are to be disclosed only after declaration of final results, while Rule 71(7) permits access to answer sheets after completion of the selection process, in accordance with the procedure framed by the Commission.

The Commission argued that as a constitutional body, it is entitled to regulate the stage of disclosure. It contended that permitting access at intermediate stages would lead to litigation and disrupt the recruitment process.

After hearing the submissions, the Court issued notice returnable in six weeks and stayed the operation of the High Court's judgment.

Background

The impugned judgment was delivered by the Uttarakhand High Court in a batch of writ petitions filed by candidates who were declared unsuccessful in the shorthand examination conducted for recruitment to the post of Additional Personal Secretary.

The recruitment process arose from an advertisement dated July 18, 2024 for 96 posts in the Government Secretariat, Dehradun and 3 posts in the Uttarakhand Public Service Commission, Haridwar. The selection involved two stages, with the first stage comprising skill-based tests including typing, computer knowledge and shorthand, followed by a written examination.

The petitioners had cleared the typing and computer tests but failed in the shorthand examination, the result of which was declared on February 3, 2026. They sought inspection of their shorthand notebooks and answer sheets but were denied access on the basis of a footnote in the result notice stating that inspection would be permitted only after declaration of the final result and that candidates should not file RTI applications for such information.

Before the High Court, the candidates argued that denial of inspection prevented them from verifying the correctness of evaluation and from seeking timely remedies, and that postponing access until completion of the recruitment process would cause irreversible prejudice.

The High Court accepted these submissions. It held that evaluated answer scripts constitute “information” under the Right to Information Act, 2005 and that statutory rules cannot override the Act in view of Section 22 of the Act.

It quashed the restriction to the extent it denied inspection to unsuccessful candidates, read down Rule 71(7), and directed that the petitioners be allowed to inspect and obtain copies of their answer sheets.

Case no. – Petition for Special Leave to Appeal (C) No. 13928/2026

Case Title – Uttarakhand Public Service Commission v. Ruchi Rana & Ors.