R.V. Raveendran, J. - (1.) Leave granted.
(2.) The Appellant Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (for short ICAI) is a body corporate established under Section 3 of the Chartered Accountants Act, 1949. One of the functions of the Appellant council is to conduct the examination of candidates for enrolment as Chartered Accountants. The first Respondent appeared in the Chartered Accountants final examination conducted by ICAI in November, 2007. The results were declared in January 2008. The first Respondent who was not successful in the examination applied for verification of marks. The Appellant carried out the verification in accordance with the provisions of the Chartered Accountants Regulations, 1988 and found that there was no discrepancy in evaluation of answer scripts. The Appellant informed the first Respondent accordingly.
(3.) On 18.1.2008 the Appellant submitted an application seeking the following information under 13 heads, under the Right to Information Act, 2005 (RTI Act for short): 1) Educational qualification of the examiners & Moderators with subject wise classifications. (you may not give me the names of the examiners & moderators). 2) Procedure established for evaluation of exam papers. 3) Instructions issued to the examiners, and moderators oral as well as written if any. 4) Procedure established for selection of examiners & moderators. 5) Model answers if any given to the examiners & moderators if any. 6) Remuneration paid to the examiners & moderators. 7) Number of students appearing for exams at all levels in the last 2 years (i.e. PE1/PE2/PCC/CPE/Final with break up) 8) Number of students that passed at the 1st attempt from the above. 9) From the number of students that failed in the last 2 years (i.e. PE1/PE2/PCC/CPE/Final with break up) from the above, how many students opted for verification of marks as per regulation 38. 10) Procedure adopted at the time of verification of marks as above. 11) Number of students whose marks were positively changed out of those students that opted for verification of marks. 12) Educational qualifications of the persons performing the verification of marks under Regulation 38 & remuneration paid to them. 13) Number of times that the council has revised the marks of any candidate, or any class of candidates, in accordance with regulation 39(2) of the Chartered Accountants Regulations, 1988, the criteria used for such discretion, the quantum of such revision, the quantum of such revision, the authority that decides such discretion, and the number of students along with the quantum of revision affected by such revision in the last 5 exams, held at all levels (i.e. PE1/PE2/PCC/CPE/Final with break up). (Emphasis supplied);