Details of CBI trap cases over a period of 10 years sought from Banks
24 Feb, 2013
Background
The appellant filed an application under the Right to Information (RTI) Act with the Punjab National bank (PNB) seeking information in relation to the cases where the bank allowed revocation of suspension for bank officials, such as copy of the office note and the letters of revocation of suspension in Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) trap cases under the Prevention of Corruption Act reported during the last 10 years. The Public Information Officer (PIO) responded that no such information is compiled by the bank and collection of such information from different offices and compiling the same would disproportionately divert the bank resources under section 7(9) An information shall ordinarily be provided in the form in which it is sought unless it would disproportionately divert the resources of the public authority or would be detrimental to the safety or preservation of the record in question. of the RTI Act.
Proceedings
During the hearing before the Central Information Commission (CIC), the respondent stated that neither was the information available in the format in which it was being sought nor would it have been wise to deploy the bank’s scarce resources to collect the information from the various branches. The respondent further stated that the information cited by the appellant is spread over many wings of the bank and the collection would have not served any purpose. Hence the bank had informed the appellant that no such information was compiled by the bank and collection of such information would lead to disproportionate diversion of the bank’s resources.
View of CIC
The Commission accepted the contentions of the respondent and rejected the appeal.
Citation: Mr. Yogesh Kumar Jain v. Punjab National bank in Decision No. CIC/SM/A/2011/001632/VS/02047
RTI Citation : RTIFI/2013/CIC/1075
Click here to view original RTI order of Court / Information Commission