New Delhi: The Delhi High Court (HC) has said that students appearing for Common Admission Test (CAT) test are allowed to take the question papers home. Apart from CAT, candidates sitting in any of the competitive exams like Indian Institute of Technology Joint Entrance Examination (IIT-JEE) or competitive exam at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) can also take the question papers home.
As per sources, AIIMS has challenged the HC order by asserting that question papers are its intellectual property. The institute also stated that many experts prepare the question paper and disclosure of the question papers will encourage students to memorize the answers. This will adversely affect the selection of good candidates for super specialty courses, sources added.
Justice Murlidhar said that the question papers cannot be termed as intellectual property of an institution. He added that it would certainly be in the larger public interest to provide the questions to aspiring students who will be able to understand the pattern in which questions are framed. As per sources, the court has denied the AIIMS’s argument.
The High Court said that the grounds raised by AIIMS for denying the questions papers to aspiring students are tenable in law. The HC explained that unless the public authority is able to show that the information sought is exempted from disclosure under section 8(1) RTI Act, the data sought is required to be disclosed to the applicant. As per sources, experts feel that the denial of question papers to students is leading to an increase in education clinics, which charge high fees.
