RTI for UPSC and SSC marks, cut-offs and answer keys

Aniket, a 24-year-old from a district headquarter town in eastern Uttar Pradesh, sat the UPSC Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination, 2025 at the Lucknow centre. When the result PDF landed in June, his roll number was not in the qualifying list. The PDF showed only the category-wise cut-off - 86.02 for General, 82.33 for EWS - and a single line saying “marks will be uploaded later.” Aniket believed he had scored above the cut-off on the answer key he cross-checked privately. He wanted to see his own paper-wise marks, the final answer key for his shift, the sub-category cut-off for EWS among PwBD candidates, and the scaling methodology the Commission had applied. None of it was in the public PDF.

He is not alone. Every year, lakhs of candidates who sit UPSC Civil Services, UPSC EPFO, SSC CGL, SSC CHSL, SSC MTS, SSC GD and the Combined Defence Services examination land in the same fog - a result that declares pass or fail but hides the arithmetic. A one-mark margin decides whether a year of preparation continues or ends. The Right to Information Act, 2005 is the only statutory tool that lets a candidate pull that arithmetic into the open. This guide shows exactly what you can ask for from UPSC and SSC, what the commissions lawfully refuse, and how to draft the application so the PIO cannot fall back on a vague exemption.

Both UPSC and SSC are “public authorities” under Section 2(h) of the RTI Act, 2005 - UPSC because it is established under Articles 315-323 of the Constitution, and SSC because it is an attached office of the Department of Personnel and Training constituted under the Government of India (Allocation of Business) Rules. That status makes every CPIO of these bodies duty-bound to furnish information under Section 6(1), subject to the exemptions in Section 8.

The Supreme Court has drawn the line sharply in two companion judgments delivered a month apart in 2011. In CBSE v. Aditya Bandopadhyay, (2011) 8 SCC 497 (decided 9 August 2011), the Court held that an evaluated answer-book is “information” under Section 2(f), the examining body is not in a fiduciary relationship with the examinee under Section 8(1)(e), and Section 22 of the RTI Act overrides any bye-law of an examining body that bars inspection. The candidate's right exists, however, only during the body's retention period, and re-evaluation is not a relief available under RTI - you get to see the marks, not re-award them.

A few weeks later, in Institute of Chartered Accountants of India v. Shaunak H. Satya, (2011) 8 SCC 781 (decided 2 September 2011), the same bench refined the rule: the instructions, solutions and model answers given to examiners are held in a fiduciary relationship under Section 8(1)(e) and are also intellectual property under Section 8(1)(d) - but that protection is time-sensitive and lapses once disclosure would no longer harm the body's competitive position. The examiner-examinee relationship itself is not fiduciary, and examiner qualifications are disclosable.

A second Supreme Court ruling - UPSC v. Angesh Kumar, (2018) 4 SCC 530 (decided 20 February 2018) - is the one most candidates miss. The Court set aside a Delhi High Court direction and held that information regarding raw and scaled marks, the scaling methodology, cut-off marks and the complete result of all candidates in the Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination cannot be directed to be furnished mechanically under RTI. The PIO must balance transparency against fiscal resources, confidentiality and the integrity of the examination system. The Court left open that a court may still order disclosure where a specific public interest is shown, or where the rules or practice of the Commission require it. The Kerala Public Service Commission line of cases - finally decided by the Supreme Court on 4 February 2016 in Civil Appeal Nos. 823-855 of 2016 (Kerala Public Service Commission v. State Information Commission) - confirms that scanned answer-sheet copies, tabulation sheets, interview marks and category-wise cut-offs and rank data are disclosable, but examiner identity is protected under Section 8(1)(e) and must be severed under Section 10.

To ask a sharp question, you need to know which office holds which record. UPSC conducts the Civil Services Examination, the Engineering Services Examination, the Combined Defence Services Examination, the NDA and NA Examination, the EPFO Enforcement Officer/Accounts Officer examination, and several others. SSC conducts the Combined Graduate Level (CGL), Combined Higher Secondary Level (CHSL), Junior Engineer, Multi-Tasking Staff (MTS), General Duty (GD) Constable, and Stenographer examinations, among others. Each examination has stages - Tier-1, Tier-2 (for SSC) or Prelims, Mains and Personality Test (for UPSC Civil Services) - and each stage generates its own set of records: a provisional answer key, a final answer key (post-challenge), individual response sheets, raw scores, scaled/normalised scores, cut-off marks, a merit list, and a rank list.

The records are held at two levels. UPSC keeps all Civil Services Examination records at its headquarters - the CPIO sits at Union Public Service Commission, Dholpur House, Shahjahan Road, New Delhi - 110069. SSC keeps headquarters records at Under Secretary and CPIO (C.1/1), Staff Selection Commission, Block No.12, CGO Complex, Lodhi Road, New Delhi - 110003 (phone 011-24368090), but the SSC portal migrated in 2024 to https://ssc.gov.in (the old ssc.nic.in address now redirects). For SSC regional examinations - conducted by the Northern, Central, Western, Eastern, Southern, North-Western, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka-Kerala and North-Eastern Regional Offices - the records sit with the regional CPIO; for the Northern Region, that is Room No.516, 5th Floor, Block No.12, CGO Complex, Lodhi Road, New Delhi-110003. Routing your RTI to the wrong office is the single most common cause of a “information not held here” reply.

Online filing for both UPSC and SSC headquarters goes through the Central RTI portal at https://rtionline.gov.in, run by the Department of Personnel and Training. You select “Union Public Service Commission” or “Staff Selection Commission” as the public authority from the drop-down. The portal accepts payment of the Rs.10 fee by Internet banking, SBI ATM-debit card, Visa or MasterCard, and UPI. The application text limit on the portal is 3,000 characters; if your questions run longer, attach a PDF. The portal issues a unique registration number, and the First Appeal can also be filed online, free of cost. The portal help desk is reachable at 011-24010690 / 011-24010691 (9:00 to 17:30, Monday to Friday) and by email at [email protected].

Two things have changed in the recruitment-RTI landscape that you should build into your application in 2026.

First, SSC's headquarters portal moved to https://ssc.gov.in. The legacy ssc.nic.in URL now redirects, but the regional-network page still resolves through the old domain. When you cite the notification number or the result URL in your RTI, use the ssc.gov.in address so the PIO cannot plead that the page you referenced is “no longer accessible.” The same applies to UPSC, whose result and answer-key PDFs are hosted on upsc.gov.in under the “Examination” and “Previous Question Papers” tabs.

Second, the Angesh Kumar (2018) 4 SCC 530 rule is now being invoked more strictly by UPSC to refuse disclosure of the scaling formula and the subject-wise cut-offs for the Civil Services Preliminary Examination. Multiple CIC orders in 2024 and 2025 have upheld the refusal where the applicant showed no specific public interest beyond personal curiosity. The lesson is procedural: if you are asking for the scaling methodology or the raw-to-scaled mapping, plead a specific public-interest ground in the application itself - a narrow margin (one or two marks), a suspected normalisation error across a shift, or an inconsistency between the OMR response sheet and the declared score. A bare request without a pleaded public interest will be refused, and the refusal will likely stand on First Appeal.

1. Step 1 - Identify the right public authority. For UPSC Civil Services, CDS, NDA, EPFO, Engineering Services or any UPSC-conducted exam, the CPIO is at Union Public Service Commission, Dholpur House, Shahjahan Road, New Delhi - 110069. For SSC headquarters-conducted exams (CGL, CHSL, JE, MTS, Stenographer), the CPIO is at Staff Selection Commission, Block No.12, CGO Complex, Lodhi Road, New Delhi - 110003. For SSC regional exams (GD Constable conducted by a regional office, or a regional recruitment), route to the regional CPIO at the address listed on the SSC regional network page. Filing at the wrong level is the most common delay.
2. Step 2 - Prepare your identifiers. Note your roll number, registration/application ID, exam name, year, stage (Prelims/Mains/Interview or Tier-1/Tier-2), centre and shift. Without these, the PIO cannot locate your record and will reply asking for particulars, eating into your 30-day clock.
3. Step 3 - Draft specific questions. Ask for named records, not “details.” Strong, citable questions:
   1. “Furnish a copy of the final answer key (post-challenge) for my paper/shift of the [Exam Name, Year].”
   2. “Furnish my scored marks, paper-wise and section-wise, as recorded in the Commission's system, as read with CBSE v. Aditya Bandopadhyay, (2011) 8 SCC 497.”
   3. “Furnish the category-wise cut-off for each stage of the [Exam Name, Year], including the UR, OBC, SC, ST, EWS and PwBD sub-category break-up, as held disclosable in Kerala Public Service Commission v. State Information Commission, (2016) Supreme Court.”
   4. “Furnish my Personality Test/Interview marks, board number and duration, as a pure number.”
   5. “Furnish the number of vacancies notified, the reservation roster and any draw from the reserved list for the [Exam Name, Year].”
   6. “Furnish my rank at each stage and my final merit position.”
4. Step 4 - Choose your filing route. Online: go to https://rtionline.gov.in, register, select “Union Public Service Commission” or “Staff Selection Commission” as the public authority, paste your application, pay Rs.10 by UPI or card, and save the registration number. Offline: print the application, attach an Indian Postal Order for Rs.10 (or a court-fee stamp where the rules permit) drawn in favour of “Union Public Service Commission” or “Staff Selection Commission” as the case may be, and send by registered post to the CPIO address above. BPL applicants are exempt from the fee on production of a BPL certificate.
5. Step 5 - Keep proof. Save the rtionline.gov.in registration number, or the postal acknowledgement. Proof of submission is your shield if the reply is delayed beyond 30 days.
6. Step 6 - Wait 30 days. Under Section 7(1), the CPIO must reply within 30 days of receiving the application (48 hours where life or liberty is at stake - which does not apply to recruitment queries). If no reply arrives, or the reply is evasive, move to the escalation ladder below.

RTI's strength is its built-in ladder. If the PIO ignores you or hides behind a vague exemption, you do not stop.

1. First Appeal: Under Section 19(1), file a First Appeal with the First Appellate Authority (FAA) in the same commission within 30 days of the expiry of the PIO's deadline (or of receiving an unsatisfactory reply). There is no fee for a First Appeal to a Central authority. The FAA must decide within 30 days, extendable to 45. On rtionline.gov.in, the First Appeal can be filed online against your original registration number.
2. Second Appeal: If the FAA also fails, file a Second Appeal under Section 19(3) with the Central Information Commission within 90 days. There is no fee for a second appeal to the CIC. The CIC can order disclosure and impose a penalty of Rs.250 per day on the PIO, up to Rs.25,000, under Section 20.
3. Complaint under Section 18: Where the PIO never replied at all or refused to accept the application, a direct complaint to the Central Information Commission is also available.

For UPSC and SSC recruitment RTIs, the most common pattern is: the PIO releases your own marks, the final answer key and the category-wise cut-off at the first stage; refuses the scaling methodology and the raw-to-scaled mapping citing Angesh Kumar; and refuses examiner identity citing Section 8(1)(e) read with Section 10. The marks-and-key part is usually settled at the PIO stage; the scaling-formula part usually requires a First Appeal with a pleaded public interest, and often still fails. Use the https://righttoinformation.wiki/tools/first-appeal-app.html tool to draft the First Appeal, and the https://righttoinformation.wiki/tools/timeline-calculator-app.html tool to compute the exact day counts for the 30-day and 90-day deadlines.

1. A copy of your admit card (with roll number, centre and shift).
2. A copy of your application/registration confirmation (registration ID).
3. The provisional answer key you relied on, if you are disputing a question.
4. An Indian Postal Order for Rs.10 (offline filing) or the rtionline.gov.in payment receipt (online filing).
5. A BPL certificate if you are claiming the fee waiver.
6. For interview-stage queries, the personality-test e-summon letter showing your board and date.

1. Asking for “model answers” or “examiner notes.” These are protected as fiduciary information under Section 8(1)(e) read with ICAI v. Shaunak Satya, (2011) 8 SCC 781. Ask for the final answer key instead, which is disclosable.
2. Not citing Aditya Bandopadhyay when the PIO refuses scored marks. A bare “give me my marks” invites a vague refusal. Citing the Supreme Court ruling by name and citation speeds up compliance.
3. Demanding the scaling formula as of right for UPSC Civil Services Prelims. Under Angesh Kumar (2018) 4 SCC 530, this is not mechanically disclosable. Plead a specific public interest, or expect the refusal to stand.
4. Requesting another candidate's marks or OMR sheet. That is third-party information under Section 11 and is disclosable only in overriding public interest, which personal curiosity does not meet.
5. Filing too late. UPSC and SSC retention periods for answer-sheets and OMR data are limited (typically a few months to a couple of years post-result). The right under Aditya Bandopadhyay exists only during the retention period. File within weeks of the result, not after a year.
6. Filing at SSC headquarters for a regional exam. Headquarters will return the application as “not held here.” Identify the regional office and file there directly.
7. Using double apostrophes in the application text. In DokuWiki and several PDF converters, double apostrophes (two single quotes back-to-back) open a code block and mangle your letter. Use single quotes.

To,
The Central Public Information Officer,
Union Public Service Commission,
Dholpur House, Shahjahan Road,
New Delhi - 110069
[For SSC, substitute: Staff Selection Commission, Block No.12,
CGO Complex, Lodhi Road, New Delhi - 110003]

Subject: Information under Section 6(1) of the Right to Information
Act, 2005, regarding my performance in the [Exam Name, Year, Stage].

Sir/Madam,

I, [Full Name], an Indian citizen, Roll Number ________ for the
[Exam Name, Year and Stage], Registration/Application ID ________,
Centre ________, Shift ________, submit the following request under
Section 6(1) of the RTI Act, 2005. The information sought is
personal to me and falls within the ambit of "information" as defined
under Section 2(f), as held in CBSE v. Aditya Bandopadhyay,
(2011) 8 SCC 497.

Please furnish:

1. A copy of the final answer key (post-challenge) for my
   paper/shift of the [Exam Name, Year].
2. My scored marks, paper-wise and section-wise, as recorded in the
   Commission's system.
3. The category-wise cut-off for each stage of the [Exam Name, Year],
   including the UR, OBC, SC, ST, EWS and PwBD sub-category break-up,
   as held disclosable in Kerala Public Service Commission v. State
   Information Commission, (2016) Supreme Court (Civil Appeal
   Nos. 823-855 of 2016).
4. My Personality Test/Interview marks, board number and duration,
   as a pure number, if I appeared at that stage.
5. The number of vacancies notified, the reservation roster, and any
   draw from the reserved list for the [Exam Name, Year].
6. My rank at each stage and my final merit position.
7. A copy of my OMR response sheet / computer-based-test response
   capture, within the retention period.
8. The name and designation of the First Appellate Authority under
   Section 19(1).

[If requesting the scaling methodology for UPSC Civil Services
Prelims, add: I additionally request the scaling/normalisation
methodology applied to my shift/paper, with the raw-to-scaled
mapping. I plead a specific public interest on the ground that
[set out the narrow margin / suspected normalisation error / shift
inconsistency], read with the public-interest exception recognised
in UPSC v. Angesh Kumar, (2018) 4 SCC 530.]

I have paid the application fee of Rs.10 through [rtionline.gov.in
payment receipt No. ________ / Indian Postal Order No. ________].
I declare that I am an Indian citizen and that the information
sought is personal to me.

Yours faithfully,
[Signature]
[Name]
[Address]
[Date]

Yes, in principle. The Supreme Court in CBSE v. Aditya Bandopadhyay, (2011) 8 SCC 497 held that an evaluated answer-book is “information” under Section 2(f) and that the examining body is not in a fiduciary relationship with the examinee. The right exists only during the Commission's retention period, however. In practice, UPSC often releases the answer-script scan at the First Appeal stage rather than at the PIO stage; citing the ruling by name in the original application speeds this up.

Not mechanically. In UPSC v. Angesh Kumar, (2018) 4 SCC 530, the Supreme Court set aside a Delhi High Court direction to disclose raw and scaled marks, the scaling methodology and cut-offs for the Preliminary Examination, holding that disclosure must balance transparency against fiscal resources, confidentiality and exam-system integrity. You may still ask, but you must plead a specific public interest - a narrow margin, a suspected normalisation error, or a shift-level inconsistency - or expect a refusal that will likely stand on First Appeal.

No. Another candidate's marks and response sheet are third-party information under Section 11 of the RTI Act. They are disclosable only in overriding public interest, which personal curiosity does not satisfy. You can, however, ask for the category-wise cut-off and the rank list position (anonymised), which are disclosable.

Yes. The Supreme Court in Kerala Public Service Commission v. State Information Commission (2016) confirmed that category-wise cut-offs, rank data and scored marks are disclosable, while examiner identity is protected and must be severed under Section 10. Ask for the UR, OBC, SC, ST, EWS and PwBD sub-category break-up specifically.

Protected. In ICAI v. Shaunak H. Satya, (2011) 8 SCC 781, the Supreme Court held that instructions, solutions and model answers given to examiners are fiduciary under Section 8(1)(e) and intellectual property under Section 8(1)(d). The protection is time-sensitive and lapses once disclosure would no longer harm the body's competitive position. The final answer key (post-challenge) is, however, disclosable and separate from the protected model answers.

Go to https://rtionline.gov.in, register, and select “Union Public Service Commission” or “Staff Selection Commission” as the public authority from the drop-down. Paste your application (up to 3,000 characters; attach a PDF if longer), pay the Rs.10 fee by UPI, Internet banking or card, and save the registration number. The First Appeal can also be filed online, free of cost. The portal's help desk is at 011-24010690 / 011-24010691 (9:00-17:30, Monday-Friday) and [email protected].

The Central Government RTI application fee is Rs.10 for UPSC and SSC, payable by Indian Postal Order, demand draft, court-fee stamp (where the rules permit), cash against receipt, or online through rtionline.gov.in. BPL applicants are exempt on production of a BPL certificate. There is no fee for a First Appeal or a Second Appeal to the Central Information Commission.

For exams conducted by SSC headquarters (CGL, CHSL, JE, MTS, Stenographer), file at the headquarters CPIO at CGO Complex, Lodhi Road, New Delhi-110003. For exams conducted by a regional office (some GD Constable recruitments, regional selections), file at the regional CPIO. The regional network page lists the addresses. Filing at the wrong level produces a “not held here” reply and wastes your 30-day clock.

File a First Appeal under Section 19(1) with the First Appellate Authority within 30 days of the deadline. If the FAA also fails, file a Second Appeal under Section 19(3) with the Central Information Commission within 90 days. You can also file a complaint under Section 18 where the PIO never replied or refused to accept the application. The CIC can order disclosure and penalise the PIO under Section 20.

No. The Supreme Court in Aditya Bandopadhyay held that re-evaluation is not a relief available under the RTI Act. You can inspect your evaluated answer-book and obtain your scored marks, but you cannot ask the PIO to re-award marks. Re-evaluation, where the examination rules permit it, is a separate statutory process - file under that process, not under RTI.

1. RTI for recruitment cut-offs
2. RTI for recruitment merit lists
3. RTI for answer-sheet inspection
4. RTI for answer-sheet evaluation
5. RTI for exam result delay
6. RTI for sarkari exam admit-card problems
7. RTI for police, railway and state board recruitment
8. RTI for Students and Youth

1. RTI Act, 2005 - Sections 2(h), 2(f), 6(1), 7(1), 8(1)(d), 8(1)(e), 8(1)(g), 10, 11, 19, 20, 22: [righttoinformation.wiki](https://righttoinformation.wiki/)
2. CBSE v. Aditya Bandopadhyay, (2011) 8 SCC 497 (MANU/SC/0932/2011): [indiankanoon.org](https://future.indiankanoon.org/doc/1519371/) and full text at [jmi.ac.in](https://jmi.ac.in/upload/menuupload/rti_SC_CBSE.pdf)
3. Institute of Chartered Accountants of India v. Shaunak H. Satya, (2011) 8 SCC 781: [indiankanoon.org](https://future.indiankanoon.org/doc/1548289/)
4. UPSC v. Angesh Kumar, (2018) 4 SCC 530: [bnblegal.com](https://bnblegal.com/landmark/union-public-service-commission-etc-v-angesh-kumar-ors/)
5. Kerala Public Service Commission v. State Information Commission, (2016) Supreme Court, Civil Appeal Nos. 823-855 of 2016: [casemine.com](https://www.casemine.com/judgement/in/5728e16ee561092708a414f3)
6. UPSC RTI Transparency Officer notification (2026): [upsc.gov.in](https://www.upsc.gov.in/sites/default/files/RTI_TranspOffic_Eng_09022026.pdf)
7. Staff Selection Commission - Regional Network: [ssc.nic.in](https://ssc.nic.in/Portal/RegionalNetwork)
8. Central RTI online portal - rtionline.gov.in FAQ: [rtionline.gov.in](https://rtionline.gov.in/faq.php)

Last reviewed: 5 July 2026.