from pylab import *

rcdefaults()
rcParams.update({
    "xtick.top": 1, "xtick.labeltop": 1, "xtick.bottom": 0, "xtick.labelbottom": 0,
    "ytick.right": 1, "ytick.labelright": 1, "ytick.left": 0, "ytick.labelleft": 0,})
ax = figure().add_subplot()
ax.figure.canvas.draw()
print(ax.xaxis.get_ticks_position(), ax.yaxis.get_ticks_position())

rcdefaults()
ax = figure().add_subplot()
ax.xaxis.tick_top()
ax.yaxis.tick_right()
ax.figure.canvas.draw()
print(ax.xaxis.get_ticks_position(), ax.yaxis.get_ticks_position())

rcdefaults()
ax = figure().add_subplot()
gca().tick_params(top=True, labeltop=True, bottom=False, labelbottom=False,
                  right=True, labelright=True, left=False, labelleft=False)
ax.figure.canvas.draw()
print(ax.xaxis.get_ticks_position(), ax.yaxis.get_ticks_position())

show()