In a significant ruling, the Delhi High Court has held that marks obtained by a student in CBSE board exam 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 Acting Chief Justice A.K. Sikri and Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw said.
Writing the judgement, Endlaw said the details of marks, obtained by the student in 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 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.”
The apex transparency panel had allowed the plea of the student saying “since, the marks were available with the appellant (CBSE) and since none of the exemptions under the RTI Act were attracted to support the non disclosure thereof, the appellant was bound to and directed to provide the information sought.”
Aggrieved by the order, CBSE appealed to the single judge bench of the High Court which upheld the order of the CIC.
The CBSE then filed an appeal against the order before a division bench which allowed its plea that disclosure of the marks would dilute and defeat the grading system.
“We have already held above that disclosure of marks, which though exists with the appellant would amount to allowing play to the policy earlier prevalent of marking the examinees. Merely because the appellant/its examiners for the purpose of grading, first mark the students would not compel this court to put at naught or to allow full play to the new policy of grades,” it said.
Anil Kumar Kathpal, the father of the girl, had sought the details of the marks saying “this information will help me to identify her weak areas in studies and take timely action, so that she can pursue her career after Class XII.”
Keywords: RTI Act, CBSE X examination, Delhi High Court, new grading system
As per the court order any body can satisfy their mark of Grade A+ =100%
and A=90% and so on so that actual mark scored 91% could see as 100%.
The CBSE should explain the exact logic point. This decision can make
all our doubts solved.
The decision of the DHC that disclosure of actual marks does not attract the requirements of
the RTI act is regrettable.A layman not knowledgable on the nuances of the law may think
otherwise. It also raises the basic question whether the grades system which pigeonholes
lakhs of students into merely fifty/sixty groups(depending on the number of subjects of five or
six and the grades,nonweighted,running from 0 to 10 and the middle groups with very high
density)is superior to the raw marks system which will have ten times that number and hence
is a more realistic portrayal of the student's performance. How does this relieve the stress of
the students when they are expected to still achieve higher grades instead of higher marks?
How about the injustice to thousands of students who are at the 'peaks' of all cusps and
missing a higher grade by a mere one mark and being bracketed with others several marks
below?Is the effort involved to get an extra mark in the 90s same as the 40s/ 50s/60s?
I agree with Sanpan. Disclosing the exact marks obtained by the Student
will defeat the whole purpose of the grading system. The grading system
allows a meaningful way to evaluate the performance of the student,
without actually creating any additional pressure on the student for the
difference in few marks.
Although at a later stage if the selections for the colleges becomes
difficult then maybe a finer bandwidth must be chosen.
Either The government has to reveal the process of grading relative to the marks or marks has to be transparent to the student so the student would be acknowledged the measure of caliberation of his efficiency , by then he will have a chance of improvisation in the near future and also grading will leads to the veiling of the flaws in the defective subjects (less marks in a subject). so finally i conclude to eradicate this grading system.
By right to information Act so many cases of checking the answersheets
incorrectly have been disclosed.If anyone with the act wants to know
that whether checking is wrong or right how can it be considered to put
question mark on Grading system? High court's decision is not on the
side of transparency.
i want to share our views on grading system on cbse board.in cbse should give only accurate marks obtained in certificate. also only board exam conducted in all school. thanks.
The Question paper, answer sheets, marks and from these how grades are arrived, all should be transparent and should be available to all for a small fee. That is how we can assure the best integrity. I am not sure what is wrong in sharing marks along with grades and the normalization method used.
Right judgement by the court. Grades clearly show the caliber of the child without putting them under pressure. A 16 year child would normally understand his/her areas of weakness & can discuss with the teachers & parents on how to improve upon those.The system works well almost everywhere in the world so why not here...
Disclosing the marks will defeat the sole purpose of setting up the new system as every other parent would start going to RTI to seek details.
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