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.