Guwahati, Nov. 6: Gauhati High Court today ordered the Assam Public Service Commission to furnish copies of answer scripts to candidates who had appeared for the civil services examinations.

A division bench, comprising Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice B.P. Katakey, passed the order after six candidates moved the court seeking a directive to the commission that denied them photocopies of the answer scripts they had sought under the Right to Information (RTI) Act.

Nilav Deva Goswami, Hamen Bharali, Lakhinandan Rajkhowa, Abdul Jalil, Dhrubajyoti Das and Debasish Das, however, failed to clear the interview stage.

They had applied for answer scripts of the papers in which they were shown to have secured low marks.

They suspect manipulation and foul play by the APSC during evaluation of their answer scripts.

The petitioners had appeared in the Combined Competitive Examination, 2006 held by the APSC for recruitment to vacant posts in the Assam Civil Service, Class-I (junior grade) and allied services.

When Goswami approached the State Information Commission, Assam, the SIC passed an order (July 3, 2009) directing the APSC to furnish photocopies of the answer scripts to the candidates whenever such applications are made.

According to Goswami, the APSC, however, refused to abide by the SIC order.