Compensation under RTI for unauthorized leakage of sensitive information
29 Mar, 2012Background
The appellant had a marital dispute with her husband and the matter was pending in a court of law. She claimed that her husband fraudulently procured a copy of the ledger statement of her account no. held at Post Office and submitted the same before the court to gain undue advantage in the pending matter and therefore, she sought information about the unauthorized leakage of her ledger statement. The Public Information Officer (PIO) admitted that the copy of ledger was issued but the enquiry was not possible as there was no written request found that the ledger was given to whom and by whom.
View of CIC
During the hearing, the appellant’s father submitted that the incident shows a lack of professional ethics on the part of the department which was supposed to keep the financial matters of the depositor’s secret. He further claimed that the leakage of this information had caused detriment to his daughter and thus under section 19 (8) (b) of the RTI Act, she should be suitably compensated. The Central Information Commission agreed with the appellant and issued a show cause notice to the PIO to submit the reason why the appellant should not be granted a compensation of Rs. 25,000/-.
Citation: Ms. Varsha Gupta v Department of Posts in File No. CIC/LS/A/2011/003530
RTI Citation : RTIFI/2012/CIC/184
Click here to view original RTI order of Court / Information Commission