In May, the Supreme Court of Nepal made a landmark decision related to freedom of information and university students. Upholding a recent decision by Nepal’s National Information Commission, the court ruled that every student has the right to see their exams’ answer sheet.
Citizens' Campaign for Right to Information (CCRI), an Open Society Foundations grantee, provided technical and legal support to students who demanded, based on the Right to Information Act of Nepal, to see an attested university exam answer sheet. Tribhuvan University rejected the application arguing that the exam results were secret and showing them was against the examination norms and principles.
Students, defended by CCRI lawyers, took the case in front of the National Information Commission (NIC), which ordered the disclosure of the examination answer sheet. The university appealed the decision to the Supreme Court but ultimately lost. The final verdict directed the country’s oldest university to comply with Nepal’s five-year-old Right to Information Act and release the information to the students.