Has a particular assessee filed income tax return for a certain period?
24 May, 2013Background
The appellant filed an application under the Right to Information (RTI) Act with the Directorate of Income-Tax (Systems) seeking to know whether a particular assessee had filed his Income Tax Returns (ITR) for certain period, and if not, the action taken by the Department against the defaulter assesse. The Public Information Officer (PIO) denied the information on the ground that it was third party information.
View of CIC
The Central Information Commission (CIC) observed that the appellant wanted to know whether a particular assesse has filed income tax returns for certain years or not and is not seeking copies of ITRs filed by the assesse. The CIC held that filing of Income Tax Return is a public duty and it legitimately falls in public domain. The Commission directed the PIO to inform to the appellant as to whether the assesse in question has filed the Income Tax Returns for the impugned years without disclosing any other information.
Citation: Mr. E.C. Sharma v. Directorate of Income-Tax (Systems) in File No: CIC/RM/A/2012/000075/LS
RTI Citation : RTIFI/2013/CIC/1302
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