Manipulation of marks in Goa University

The Right to information Act 2005 has provision for obtaining answerbooks of students. I made an application under RTI Act dated 21/2/2014 for certified copy of my answerbook of the subject Constitution I as I had reasons to believe that my marks were manipulated by Goa University.

The Public Information Officer Smt S.J. Chari by her reply No GU/Exam/LLB(Degree)/RTI/562 dated 18/3/2014 informed me that photocopies of answerbook shall be made available as per circular No GU/Exams/55/2011/338 dated 20/5/2011. 

She also informed that as per point No 9 of the said circular the certified copies will not be given as per RTI Act. This was inspite of the fact that the judgement of the Hon’ble Supreme Court was brought to her notice in my RTI Application itself. By refusing to abide by the directions of the Honble Supreme court Smt S. J. Chari has committed contempt of the Hon’ble Supreme Court which is a criminal offence. The Contempt of Courts Act was also brought to her notice in my RTI application itself. Inspite of this fact she did not hesitate to commit willfull disobedience of the judgement of the Hon’ble Supreme Court.

As a result of denial of the certified copies under RTI Act a First Appeal was preferred before the First Appellate authority under RTI Act Prof N S Bhat dated 25/03/2014. 

The Appeal hearing was fixed on 24/4/2014. At the time of hearing the Public Information Officer submitted her reply.

I also submitted additional arguments in support of my appeal.

The appeal was allowed. The PIO was directed to provide the certified copies as per RTI Act at the rate of Rs 2/page. The copy of order is as below.

Though the First Appellate Authority passed an order directing to provide the certified copies as per Hon’ble Supreme Court judgement. But if you read the order closely Prof N. S. Bhat has actually committed contempt of Hon’ble Supreme Court. The lines in the second last para of his order are violative of the supreme court judgement. The line are as follows “I am of the view that the fees for the photocopies as stated in the circular dated 20/05/2011 is waived off only in this case and shall not be treated as a precedent.” This line simply means that the university will not follow the supreme court order if any other student applies for certified copies under RTI Act. On one hand Prof N S Bhat passes an order directing to provide the copies as per Supreme Court judgement on the other hand he says that he will not obey the supreme court order henceforth if any application is made in the future under RTI Act.

From the above it is crystal clear that the university officials will go even to the extent of willfully disobeying the supreme court to protect their malafide and corrupt intentions and to avoid transparency in the working of Goa University. 

Further when i received the certified copies of my evaluated answerbook i found that in the covering letter it is mentioned as xerox copies. The word "xerox copies" has been mentioned in the letter so than no other student should go to Goa University to demand certified copies. They never thought that this letter will be uploaded online. I would like to state that GU has provided me with certified copies.

 But to my horror my marks have been masked and which amounts to incomplete information as per RTI ACT.

As can be seen in the above image of front page of my evaluated answerbook the marks have been masked.
This has been done to hide the manipulation of my marks done by corrupt officials of GU. The Hon'ble supreme court judgement allows masking of examiners name only . without marks the certified copies are nothing but a piece of wastepaper.

Abusive Circular of Goa University

The Right to information was enacted in the year 2001 and amended in the year 2005. The RTI Act 2005 has overriding effect on any other law in the country.

 As per the RTI Act the Universities were bound to provide certified copies of the answerbooks to the students at the rate of Rs 2/page.

A notification was issued by state Govt on 4^th February 2008. As per the notification if any law is in force specifying a higher fee than the fee specified under RTI Act then that higher fee can be charged. The Goa University did not have any law in force at that time to charge a higher fee and hence could not charge fee higher than Rs 2/page.

 To protect their vested interests some corrupt officials of Goa University  sat together and drafted an illegal and abusive circular No. GU/EXAMS/55/2011/338 dated 20/5/2011 to bypass the provisions of the RTI Act and deny the students the certified copies of their answerbooks. Also they specified an exorbitant fee only for inspection and that too of photocopies and not certified copies.

Point No 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 are abusive terms in the circular and are illegal, null and void in the eyes of law. The officials who have created these terms are actually abusing the students of Goa and a stern action needs to be taken against these culprits. They had no right to issue such an abusive circular violating the RTI Act in the first place.

On 23/06/2014 I submitted an RTI application to find out about the said abusive circular. 

Upon filing the RTI application the Goa university woke up from its slumber. 

By letter No GU/Exam/LLB(Degree)/RTI/119 dated 21/7/2014 I was informed to collect the information to my RTI application dated 23/6/2014 but not before deleting some of the abusive terms in the said circular.

The copies of the file noting pertaining to the said abusive circular are as below.

 

Though it has been decided to remove some of the terms violating the RTI act, the said decision is still on paper and is just an eyewash as no further steps have been taken to withdraw the said abusive circular.

The GU website and the college offices are still having the abusive circular and the same is provided to the students. From the above it is crystal clear that the intention of the GU officials is to make sure that there is no transparency in the working of Goa University. 

Wrongdoings in Goa University

An RTI application dated 23/06/2014 was made to the Public Information Officer/Asst. Registrar Exam (PG) of Goa University, Smt S. J. Chari for certified copies of answerbooks of Law students. 

Smt S. J. Chari in her reply No GU/Exam/LLB (Degree)/RTI/121 dated 21/07/2014 refused to provide the information to point No 2 and 3 of the RTI application on the grounds that the students have conveyed their objections for providing the answerbooks/information.

Aggrieved by denial of information an appeal under RTI Act was filed before the First Appellate Authority of Goa University, Prof N. S. Bhat dated 30/07/2014.

 The hearing of Appeal was held on 18/08/2014.

 At the time of hearing Prof N. S. Bhat read out aloud 2 letters, one from Nidhi Natekar and another of Sunisha Thari conveying their objections. These letters were submitted by S.J. Chari to Prof N. S. Bhat as a part of her reply to the appeal. It is pertinent to note that these said letters were not provided to me and hence I was unable to verify their genuineness. Relying upon these 2 letters Prof N. S. Bhat dismissed the First Appeal.

As the copies of the letters of objection from Nidhi Natekar and Sunisha Thari were not provided to me and since they were relied upon at the time of hearing of First Appeal, I filed another RTI application dated 20/08/2014 requesting for the said letters.

 Smt S. J. Chari by her reply No GU/ExamPG/LLB(Degree)/RTI/26 dated 09/09/2014 informed that there are no such letters. These statements are contradictory to her previous replies.

 Aggrieved by this conduct and attitude of Smt S. J. Chari an appeal dated 19/09/2014 was submitted before Prof N. S. Bhat/First Appellate Authority. 

Immediately upon submission of the First appeal on the same day Smt S. J. Chari hurriedly sent a reply that Ms. Nidhi Natekar has conveyed her objections for providing the copy of her letter of objection(which was read aloud by Prof N. S. Bhat at time of hearing dated 18/08/2014). She also informed that Ms Sunisha Thari could not be contacted. She further says that the information at point No 3 & 4 (copies of the letters of objection claimed by Smt S. J. Chari and Prof N. S. Bhat to be in their possession) cannot be provided. 

All the above facts and circumstances raises serious doubts about the integrity of the above officials.

It is not surprising that Prof N. S. Bhat passed an Order holding that the letters of objection from Ms Nidhi Natekar and Ms Sunisha Thari cannot be provided under RTI Act as it is personal information. 

 A letter of objection cannot be personal information hence these letters ought to have been provided to me. Even otherwise how can we verify whether  the said students have given objection OR No Objection without seeing the said letters..
 There are a lot of illegalities going on behind the closed doors of Goa University. The University officials are trying their level best not to allow anybody to peep inside. This can be seen from the flimsy grounds used by the officials to deny information under RTI Act. These officials are trying their level best to avoid transparency in the working of Goa University. The reasons are but obvious. There are also other instances in the past wherein the Goa University created rules to bypass the provisions of RTI Act to protect their vested interests. All such acts of Goa University are detrimental to the interest of the students.