Prayagraj, March 11 -- The Allahabad high court held that information regarding marks scored in a public examination is not confidential and does not require the consent of the third party whose marks are sought by an RTI applicant under the Right to Information Act, 2005. While allowing a writ petition filed by the Union of India through general manager of Diesel Locomotive, and another, a division bench comprising Justice Ajit Kumar and Justice Swarupama Chaturvedi, in a judgment dated February 26, held: "Marks obtained by a candidate, if information regarding that is sought by another candidate who has also participated in the examination, is not such confidential private information which may require even the consent of that third party under Section 8 of the Right to Information Act, 2005." Advocate Krishna Shukla appeared for petitioners Union of India and another. The court added that while a department may take a valid defence of confidentiality if an outsider seeks the information, the situation changes when the request is from a fellow candidate. However, regarding the photocopies of answer sheets, the court noted that this may involve checking the answer sheets and the signatures of examiners, and therefore, it may not be appropriate to disclose the names and signatures of the examiners. "If the authority directs the applicants seeking information to peruse the answer sheets, it would suffice the need. There is no vested right in an applicant to obtain the photocopies of answer sheets of another candidate; however, he can always ask for the photocopy of his own answer sheet," the judgment stated. The case dated back to 2008 when one Santosh Kumar applied under the RTI Act for obtaining information on the marks awarded to three candidates, including himself, and their mark sheets of a test held by the Railways for the post of Legal Assistant. The marks were not provided, but the applicant was allowed to peruse the answer sheets on a given day. This order was appealed before the Central Information Commission, New Delhi, which directed that photocopies of the answer sheets be provided to the applicant. The high court observed that any personal information not related to any public activity or public interest may not be given out under the RTI Act, as it may cause an unnecessary invasion of privacy. It held that information that does not cause an invasion of privacy and can be disclosed in the public interest must be disclosed. In this backdrop, the court ruled that the marks sought by the applicant were to be provided, but the photocopies of the answer sheets could not be demanded as a matter of right and were not required to be supplied....