Income tax returns of BJD to be disclosed under RTI - CIC
9 Jan, 2014An application was filed with the Income Tax (IT) department under the Right to Information (RTI) Act seeking to get the details of the income tax returns (ITR) filed by the Naveen Patnaik-led Biju Janata Dal (BJD). The application also sought to know if the ITRs of the ruling party of Odisha contained balance sheet, auditor’s report, copy of assessment order, etc.
The IT department denied providing the requested information citing a Supreme Court order holding that income tax returns are personal information and should not be disclosed unless a larger public interest is involved. The department contended that as no larger public interest was involved in the disclosure of IT returns of the political party, it falls under the exemption clause 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.
The political party (BJD) stated that disclosure of its IT returns is not valid as it does not receive any grant from the government either directly or indirectly.
As the matter was brought before the Central Information Commission (CIC), the CIC cited an earlier CIC order which held that information, which is otherwise exempt, can still be disclosed if so warranted in larger public interest.
The CIC ruled that the disclosure of party’s IT returns serves a larger public interest, it cannot be exempted under 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 and hence directed the PIO to furnish the requested information within three weeks of the receipt of the order.