Vakil Help Desk News: the Punjab & Haryana High Court has held that a candidate's right to information about a public recruitment cannot be made conditional on first proving the very irregularity the information is meant to examine.
Vakil Help Desk News, Litigation & Courts. The Punjab & Haryana High Court has held that the right to information cannot be made to depend on the applicant first proving the irregularity that the information is meant to examine. Justice Kirti Singh ruled so in Sunder Lal v. State of Haryana & Others (CWP No. 12474 of 2026), directing release of a recruitment test record.
The petitioner, an unsuccessful candidate in a Haryana Police band-post selection, had sought the videography of the skill test under the RTI Act. The authorities refused, citing the privacy of other candidates, and the Information Commission allowed only the marks, not the recording.
Setting aside that refusal, the Court held that transparency matters most where information concerns the assessment of candidates in a public recruitment, and that a record forming part of the assessment cannot be withheld simply by labelling it personal. Since the skill test accounted for most of the difference in merit, the recording was the very material the candidate was entitled to examine. The authorities were directed to supply it within 30 days.
What this means for you
You don't have to prove wrongdoing first to get records of a public recruitment — the right to information cannot be gatekept that way.