HARYANA PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION Vs. STATE INFORMATION COMMISSIONER

JUDGEMENT

(1.) As identical questions of law and facts are involved, therefore, I propose to dispose of above indicated writ petitions vide this common order, in order to avoid the repetition. However, the relevant facts, which need a necessary mention for deciding the core controversy involved in these petitions, have been extracted from CWP No. 9721 of 2010 titled as Haryana Public Service Commission and Anr. v. State Information Commissioner Haryana and Anr. CWP No. 9721 of 2010, for ready reference.

(2.) The epitome of the facts, culminating in the commencement, relevant for disposal of the present writ petitions and emanating from the record, is that Petitioner-Haryana Public Service Commission (for brevity "the Petitioner-HPSC") invited the applications from the eligible candidates for the recruitment of 184 posts of Haryana Civil Services (Executive Branch and Allied Services), 2009, vide Advertisement dated 04.01.2009. One Wazir Singh Dalai (Respondent No. 2) applied for the indicated post and ultimately he appeared, but could not clear the preliminary examination held on 26.04.2009 in this regard.

(3.) In the wake of application (Annexure P-1) dated 20.07.2009, Respondent No. 2 sought the (information) photo-copy of question booklet of Zoology subject (optional), photo-copy of question booklet of General Studies (Preliminary Exams HCS-2009) (Executive Branch and Allied Services) and photo-copy of response of paper setter/examiner, Zoology (optional), invoking the provisions of The Right to Information Act, 2005 (hereinafter to be referred as "the Act"). The informations were denied to him by the State Public Information Officer-cum-Secretary (for brevity "the SPIO"), vide single line order dated 19.10.2009(Annexure P-2) on the ground of its confidentiality. The first appeal filed by him before the First Appellate Authority (for short "the FAA") met with the same fate.