Appellant sought the date of birth certificates & experience certificates of the candidates appointed on the post of maintenance staff by the bank - CIC upheld the decision of the respondents of denial of copy of certificates submitted by the candidates
30 Nov, 2015ORDER
1. The appellant submitted RTI application dated June 6, 2014 before the Central Public Information Officer (CPIO), State Bank of Travancore, Trichur; seeking information regarding details of 43 candidates who had been selected as maintenance staff in Trichur Zone in 2013; details of subsequently terminated candidates; copy of documents submitted by them etc.; through a total of 10 points.
2. The CPIO vide his letter dated July 5, 2014; furnished point wise reply to the appellant in which he had provided the list of branches where the successful/terminated/given age relaxation candidates were posted and denied rest of the information like Birth Certificates, educational qualification documents etc. of the candidates u/s 8(1)(j) Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act, there shall be no obligation to give any citizen, information which relates to personal information the disclosure of which has no relationship to any public activity or interest, or which would cause unwarranted invasion of the privacy of the individual unless the Central Public Information Officer or the State Public Information Officer or the appellate authority, as the case may be, is satisfied that the larger public interest justifies the disclosure of such information: Provided that the information which cannot be denied to the Parliament or a State Legislature shall not be denied to any person. of the RTI Act, 2005. Not satisfied with the CPIO’s reply, the appellant preferred an appeal dated July 12, 2014 to the first appellate authority (FAA). Vide order dated July 24, 2014; the FAA upheld the Central Public Information Officer (CPIO)’s decision.
3. Dissatisfied with the response of the public authority, the appellant preferred second appeal before the Commission.
4. The matter was heard by the Commission. The appellant stated that he had sought information regarding the appointment made on the post of maintenance staff by the bank through a total of 10 points. He alleged that the bank was denying him the copy of certificates submitted by the selected candidates especially date of birth certificates and Experience Certificates as incidents of fake certificate were reported in several cases. He requested the Commission to direct the respondents to provide the DOB certificates and Experience Certificates submitted by the selected candidates to him.
5. The respondents submitted that they had provided all the disclosable information to the appellant; but denied the copy of certificates submitted by the successful candidates treating it personal information of the third party held by them in fiduciary capacity. They stated that the Hon'ble Apex Court has also decided in Girish Ramchandra Deshpande v. Central Information Commission & Ors., SLP (Civil) No. 27734 of 2011 that the documents submitted by the employees to the employer relating to his employment would be considered as "personal information", the disclosure of which has no larger public interest and on the other hand disclosure of which would cause unwarranted invasion of privacy of that individual. And this information could only be disclosed if the public authority is satisfied that disclosure was in the favour of larger public interest which is not the case in the present matter.
6. In view of the above, the Commission upholds the decision of the respondents of denial of copy of certificates submitted by the successful candidates; however, the Commission directs the respondents to furnish the list of 43 selected candidates to the appellant within 7 days of the receipt of this order. The appeal is disposed of.
(Manjula Prasher)
Information Commissioner
Citation: Shri T Narendran v. State Bank of Travancore in Appeal No. CIC/MP/A/2014/001790