Copy of caste certificate, TC, caste verification report and educational certificates of an employee denied u/s 8(1)(e) & 8(1)(j) - CIC: caste and educational certificates are personal information - appellant has not demonstrated any public purpose
8 Oct, 2013ORDER
Information sought:
The appellant had sought following information with respect to Shri T. V. Anjanappa, presently working as MTS (Gr. D) at Malleshwaram P.O. (MDG), Bangalore-560003:
1- Copy of caste certificate produced during entry in the department i.e. on 21/11/1994.
2- Copy of T.C. produced at the time of initial appointment as ED Packer (Now designated as GDS MP).
3- Copy of caste (S.T) certificate produced during promotion to MTS on 13/06/2011.
4- Copy of caste verification report.
5- Copy of education certificates details.
Grounds for the Second Appeal: The PIO has refused the information under Section 11 of the RTI Act 2005. Relevant Facts emerging during Hearing: The following were present
Appellant: Mr. G. Venkatesh Bhovi through VC Respondent: Mr. S R Nagendra CPIO’s representative through VC The CPIO stated that the appellant in his RTI application has sought copies of caste certificate, TC, caste verification report and educational certificates provided by Shri T.V. Anjanappa an employee who is working as an MTS and since the information relates to a third party the procedure as outlined in Section 11 was followed but the employee has pleaded privacy and has refused to give his consent. He argued that the information relates to a third party, is personal in nature and no public purpose has been demonstrated by the appellant to justify the disclosure and hence the same is exempt under section 8(1)(e) Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act, there shall be no obligation to give any citizen, information available to a person in his fiduciary relationship, unless the competent authority is satisfied that the larger public interest warrants the disclosure of such information; & 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. of the RTI Act. The appellant stated that he has a copy of the gradation list which shows that Mr. Anjanappa has been appointed under ‘other caste’ whereas in the promotion list he has been shown as belonging to ‘ST’ category. The CPIO’s representative explained that at the time of recruitment Mr. Anjanappa was not given any benefit of his ST category as he had qualified on merit and subsequently during the promotion he was given the benefit of his ST category which is in conformity with the Government of India guidelines. He reiterated that no discrepancy has come to light in the caste or other certificates provided by the employee.
Decision notice:
It is fairly obvious that the caste and educational certificates of an employee are in the nature of personal information about a third party. The employee might have filed these documents before the appointing authority for the purpose of seeking employment, but that is not reason enough for this information to be brought in to the public domain to which anybody could have access. Apart from this, the appellant has not been able to demonstrate any public purpose which the disclosure of this information would serve. Hence, we concur with the submissions of the CPIO’s representative that the information is exempt from disclosure. The appeal is disposed of accordingly.
BASANT SETH
Information Commissioner
Citation: Mr. G. Venkatesh Bhovi v. Department of Posts in File No. CIC/BS/A/2012/001202/3483