Can the annual income of LIC Agent be sought under RTI?
14 Oct, 2012Background
The appellant filed an application under the Right to Information (RTI) Act with the Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) of India seeking details in respect of the annual income of a particular LIC Agent. The Public Information Officer (PIO) denied to provide the third party information under sections 8(1)(d) Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act, there shall be no obligation to give any citizen, information including commercial confidence, trade secrets or intellectual property, the disclosure of which would harm the competitive position of a third party, unless the competent authority is satisfied that larger public interest warrants the disclosure of such information; and 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.
Proceedings
During the hearing before the Central Information Commission (CIC), the PIO submitted that the agent was not an employee of the Corporation but was only their agent who was not given any salary but was only given commission on the insurance business procured by him. He also stated that the third party had not given his consent for the disclosure of information that was personal to him. The PIO further submitted that the appellant had not established any larger public interest in disclosure of personal information pertaining to the third party.
View of CIC
The Commission accepted the arguments put forth by the PIO and rejected the appeal.
Citation: Mrs. Parveen Bhalla v. LIC of India in Appeal: No. CIC/DS/A/2011/004219
RTI Citation : RTIFI/2012/CIC/724
Click here to view original RTI order of Court / Information Commission