Can gross pension inclusive of emoluments be disclosed to a RTI applicant?
13 Jun, 2013Background
The appellant filed an application under the Right to Information (RTI) Act with the Visakhapatnam Port Trust seeking details of the male employeeswho had been retired as Senior Lab Assistant under VRS (Voluntary Retirement Scheme) in a particular year. He wanted the details such as their surname, Employee I.D. No., residential Quarter No., Caste, sub case, nativity and yearly Gross Pension inclusive of all emoluments. The Public Information Officer (PIO) provided the information except the yearly Gross Pension inclusive of all emoluments. The First Appellate Authority (FAA) held that appellant’s request for pension emoluments had no merit since the information requested attracted the provisions of section 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. 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, being personal information of the third party and no larger public interest has been established by the appellant for disclosure of this information.
View of CIC
The Central Information Commission (CIC) rejected the appeal observing that the information requested for by the appellant attracts the provision of section 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. 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.
Comments
The views of the different benches differ on the issue. Some benches have held pension to be equivalent to pay and have ordered for disclosure of the same.
Citation: Mr. P. Naveen Babu v. Visakhapatnam Port Trust in Case No. CIC/SS/A/2012/001908
RTI Citation : RTIFI/2013/CIC/1359
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