New Delhi, Nov. 22: Kapil Sibal’s reported suggestion to raise eligibility cut-offs for the IITs has saddled the human resource development ministry with an unusual Right to Information query to disclose the minister’s own marks in his school-leaving examinations.

Ram Charan Bahadur, a resident of Varanasi, has asked the government to provide Sibal’s marks in his school-leaving examinations in what appears a novel attempt at expressing opposition to the HRD minister’s reported comments.

Sibal isn’t alone in finding his school scores under the RTI scanner -- Bahadur has also asked for the scores of all IIT directors and faculty in their school-leaving examinations.

The HRD minister — who studied at Delhi’s St. Stephen’s College and at Harvard Law School — is possibly among India’s best qualified politicians academically.

But Bahadur’s RTI application is indicative of the fury triggered among sections by Sibal’s comments on eligibility for the IITs, which the minister later clarified were misunderstood.

Sibal had suggested that a rise in the eligibility cut-off for the IIT Joint Entrance Examination may be worth considering to encourage students to focus more on school than on IIT coaching classes.

He had informally suggested 80 percentile in the school-leaving examinations as a possible revised cut-off, effectively allowing only the top 20 per cent performers in school-leaving examinations a shot at the IIT JEE.

At present, students need to score at least 60 per cent in their school-leaving examinations to be eligible for the IIT-JEE.

Sibal’s comment, made after a meeting of the IIT Council, triggered a storm of criticism with some students, teachers and politicians slamming the HRD minister.

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar wrote to Sibal arguing that any hike in eligibility criteria for IIT entrance tests would be “elitist” and would hurt students from small towns and rural areas.

Sibal promptly clarified that he had only cited the 80 percentile figure as an example and that the IITs, and not the HRD ministry, had the power to determine their eligibility criteria.

Sources close to Sibal said that while the minister had nothing to hide in terms of his academic credentials, the RTI application was frivolous and unfair — not just to Sibal, but to the IIT directors and faculty.

“Even if the HRD minister’s comments were to be viewed without his clarification, the RTI query seeks to draw unfair conclusions,” an official said.

Scoring marks was a lot harder in most school boards in the 1960s and 1970s when Sibal, most current IIT directors and many faculty members had finished school than it is at present, the official said.

In the absence of a percentile mechanism across school, which would have allowed boards enabling a comparison between performances of students in different boards, the RTI applicant is likely to draw “inaccurate” conclusions, another official said.

The RTI application may also be rejected on the grounds that the information it seeks — although about public appointees — is inconsequential to the qualifications required for their current jobs.

Revealing the information could constitute an invasion of privacy — protected under the RTI Act.