Court affirms students’ right to inspect marked scripts

Colombo, May 12 (Daily Mirror) - While upholding the Right to Information Commission’s decision that the RTI Act prevails over the University By-Laws, the Court of Appeal held that there cannot be hide-and-seek games in higher educational institutions and that every examinee has the right to access their evaluated answer scripts.

The Court of Appeal has ruled that the Right to Information (RTI) Act prevails over university by-laws, affirming that examinees have the right to access their evaluated answer scripts while safeguarding the identity of examiners.

Delivering the judgment, the two-judge bench comprising Justice Dr. Sumudu Premachandra and Justice R. Gurusinghe upheld a determination made by the Right to Information Commission in a case filed by the Open University of Sri Lanka challenging the Commission’s order.

The case arose from an information request submitted by R.A. Janaka Roshan Ranasinghe on behalf of his daughter, seeking access to her answer scripts and marks relating to the LLB Selection Test conducted by the Open University on January 8, 2023.

The University’s Information Officer and Designated Officer had initially rejected the request, citing Section 5(1)(l) of the Right to Information Act No. 12 of 2016. The University maintained that releasing examination-related material, including answer scripts and evaluator details, would compromise the confidentiality and integrity of the examination process and create a detrimental legal precedent.

Following an appeal by the applicant, the Right to Information Commission on November 28, 2023 directed the University to release the requested information.

Challenging that determination before the Court of Appeal, the University argued that the Commission had erred in both fact and law by failing to recognise that disclosure of answer scripts would expose the structure and nature of the examination process, thereby undermining its security.

Rejecting the University’s arguments, the Court of Appeal held that every examinee is entitled to obtain access to their evaluated answer scripts, subject to maintaining the confidentiality of the examiner who marked the papers.

“Thus, the University By-Laws suppressing the RTI has no force in law and we are of the view that the decision of the RTI Commission is well founded and cannot be refuted. Thus, the provisions of the RTI Act prevail over the University By-Laws,” the Court held.

Justice Premachandra, in his observations, stressed the importance of transparency within higher educational institutions, stating that there was no justifiable reason to deny an examinee access to their own answer script and the manner in which it had been marked.

“There cannot be hide-and-seek games in higher institutions, and transparency is a paramount consideration as required by Article 14A of the Constitution and the preamble of the Right to Information Act,” Justice Premachandra observed.