Govt Exam Grievance + RTI Guides — UPSC, SSC, IBPS, NEET

What an RTI can actually get you from an exam body. The Supreme Court settled the big question in CBSE v. Aditya Bandopadhyay (2011) 8 SCC 497: once an examination is over and the process complete, evaluated answer books are “information” under the RTI Act, and a candidate can ask for their own evaluated sheets. From that root, the records candidates routinely obtain are:

• Photocopy of your OMR sheet or answer book, with the evaluated marks.
• Question-wise marks and, where normalisation applies, the normalisation formula and its application to your raw score.
• Answer keys and cut-offs, including category-wise cut-offs after the final result.
• Vacancy and reservation data — the post-wise, category-wise vacancy count a recruitment was run against.

The application goes to the Central Public Information Officer of the examining body — UPSC, SSC, IBPS, NTA or the Railway Recruitment Board — with the ₹10 fee, and the 30-day clock of Section 7(1) applies. Two cautions from decided cases: a body cannot refuse your own evaluated sheets as “third party” or “fiduciary” information, but it can legitimately refuse while the process — a pending re-evaluation window, an ongoing exam cycle — is still live. File after the window closes, and ask precisely.

• UPSC Civil Services Exam (CSE) — UPSC releases prelims result + cut-off ~30 days post-exam. Mains result + cut-off in batches. Answer key challenge windo…
• UPSC NDA + CDS — NDA + CDS each held twice yearly. Written result in 30-45 days. Answer key challenge similar to CSE. SSB result post-int…
• SSC CGL — SSC releases Tier 1 result in 30-45 days, Tier 2 in 60-90 days. Answer key objection window 7 days at Rs 100/question (r…
• SSC CHSL — SSC CHSL conducted in 3 tiers. Tier 1 result in 30-45 days; Tier 2 + skill cumulative.
• SSC GD Constable — SSC GD: written exam → PET → PST → medical → DV → final merit. Each stage knockout. Medical rejection appealable to AMB.
• IBPS PO — IBPS PO: 3-stage selection. Prelims → Mains → Interview. Final merit = 80% mains + 20% interview. Bank allocation by res…
• IBPS Clerk — IBPS Clerk: 2-stage. Prelims → Mains → Allocation. NO interview (since 2018). Final merit = mains marks. Bank allocation…
• RBI Grade B — RBI Grade B: Phase I (general) + Phase II (3 papers — economics, finance, statistics) + Interview. Limited posts; high c…
• RRB NTPC — RRB NTPC: 4-stage. CBT-1 → CBT-2 → Skill/Aptitude → DV → Final merit. Posts: Junior Clerk, Accounts Clerk, Junior Time K…
• RRB Group D — RRB Group D: 4-stage. CBT → PET (physical) → Medical → DV → Final merit. Track Maintainer, Helper, Pointsman, Hospital A…
• NEET UG — NEET UG conducted by NTA. Result in 30-45 days. Answer key challenge window 5-7 days at Rs 200/question (refundable). Re…
• JEE Main + Advanced — JEE Main: multi-session, NTA-conducted; result percentile-based. JEE Advanced: by IIT (rotating); result rank-based.
• CAT — CAT conducted by IIMs (rotating). Result in 30-45 days. Percentile-based. IIM admission: own criteria (CAT + WAT/PI + ac…
• GATE — GATE conducted by IIT/IISc (rotating). Result in 30 days. Score-based (normalised across sessions). M.Tech admission via…
• State Public Service Commission (PSC) Exams — Each state has its own PSC (UPPSC, BPSC, MPPSC, RPSC, KPSC, TNPSC, TSPSC, APPSC, KPSC, OPSC, JPSC, HPSC, HPPSC, UKPSC, e…

The body that conducted the exam and holds your evaluated record. NTA for NEET and JEE Main, UPSC for the civil services and defence exams, SSC for its recruitment, RRBs for railway posts. An application to the wrong body costs you 30 days.

Once the result and the answer-key challenge window are done, the process is complete and the evaluated sheet is disclosable. Filing while rechecking is still live invites a lawful “process ongoing” refusal.

Cut-offs and result statistics are public. An identifiable candidate's marks raise the privacy exemption in Section 8(1)(j), so ask for the distribution and the cut-off, not the person.

Every page above ends with an RTI escalation template — most stuck cases clear within 15 days of an RTI being filed. For exams, the template's five questions adapt naturally: current status of my request, name of the officer holding it, reasons for delay, the file's movement, and the likely date of the record being supplied.

• AI RTI Drafter: Auto-fill PIO + Act sections
• Helplines + grievance: 32 helplines
• Browse all yojanas: Sarkari Yojana index
• Audience hubs: 10 audience-hub guides
• The RTI Playbook — with a worked answer-sheet RTI example