ALKA MATORIA Vs. MAHARAJA GANGA SINGH UNIVERSITY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner, having pursued the Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) course with a college affiliated to the respondent No.1, Maharaja Ganga Singh University, Bikaner ('the respondent-University' hereafter), has filed this writ petition in challenge to a condition occurring in the "Regulation for Obtaining Certified Copy of Answerbook under RTI Act-2005", as framed by the respondent-University insofar it requires payment of a non-refundable fee of Rs.1,000/- per answer-book for obtaining certified copy thereof.

(2.) The factual aspects of the matter are not of dispute and could be taken note of, in brief, as follows: The petitioner, said to be having in the background a good academic record, has been pursuing her B.A. course as a regular student at Sri Atam Vallabh Jain Girls College, Sriganganagar, which is affiliated to the respondent-University, with the optional subjects: Political Science, English Literature and Philosophy. After having successfully completed Part-I and Part-II of the said course, the petitioner appeared in B.A. Part-III Examination held this year i.e., 2012; and in the result declared by the respondent-University, she was awarded 47 marks in English Literature Paper-I. Being dissatisfied with the marks so awarded, the petitioner sought re-evaluation of her answerbook of English Literature Paper-I; and, in the re-evaluation, her marks were shown as reduced from 47 to 28.

(3.) After getting such unfavourable result in the re-evaluation, the petitioner filed an application on 15.10.2012 with reference to Section 7(1) of the Right to Information Act, 2005 ('the Act of 2005' hereafter) seeking certified copy of her answer-book of English Literature Paper-I with the application fee of Rs.10/-. Then, for the concerned Public Information Officer having failed to provide the requisite certified copy within time, the petitioner preferred an appeal under Section 19 of the Act of 2005.