Information about date of promotion of bank employees etc. was sought - CIC: Provide the information for administration of justice by ascertaining whether some junior had been promoted in terms of CGIT order and whether he was entitled for higher wages
1 Sep, 2019O R D E R
1. The issues under consideration arising out of the second appeal dated 14.01.2018 include non-receipt of the following information raised by the appellant through his RTI application dated 08.08.2017and first appeal dated 07.10.2017:-
• Please provide information regarding employees joined in the service of bank on or after 01.09.1977 in clerical cadre and further given promotions in officer cadre after 11.11.2002 and subsequently promoted to higher Grade of officer cadre with dated of their all promotions.
Name of the employee
Date of joining after 01.09.1977
Dates of promotions & cadre after 11.11.2002
Dated of Superannuation
2. Succinctly facts of the case are that the appellant filed an application dated 08.08.2017 under the Right to Information Act, 2005 (RTI Act) before the Central Public Information Officer (CPIO), Bank of India, Bhadra, Ahmedabad seeking aforesaid information. The CPIO replied on 04.09.2017. Dissatisfied with the response of the CPIO, the appellant filed first appeal dated 07.10.2017. The First Appellate Authority disposed of the first appeal vide order dated 23.11.2017. Aggrieved by this, the appellant has filed a second appeal dated 14.01.2018 before this Commission which is under consideration.
3. The appellant filed the instant appeal dated 14.01.2018 inter alia on the grounds that the CPIO as well as FAA had unlawfully denied the information. 4. The CPIO vide letter dated 04.09.2017 replied that the information sought by the appellant was personal in nature and was held by them in fiduciary capacity. The information was exempted under section 8 (1) (d), (e) and (j) of RTI application, hence, could not be furnished to the appellant. The FAA upheld the decision taken by the CPIO.
5. The appellant and on behalf of the respondent Shri S Kumaravel, Chief Manager(Law), Bank of India, Ahmedabad, attended the hearing through video conference.
5.1. The appellant inter alia submitted that he was compulsorily retired and thereafter aggrieved by the action taken by the respondent. He obtained a favourable order from the Central Government Industrial Tribunal (hereinafter referred to as CGIT). He further informed that order passed by the CGIT had been challenged by the Bank of India and while admitting the case the High Court had directed the bank to deposit the amount of arrears ordered by CGIT payable to the appellant with the Registrar through a nationalized bank and secure it for a period of five years. The appellant contended that the spirit of order passed by the CGIT was that he was entitled to the amount of backwages at par with junior employees who got promoted barring him. Therefore he needs the information so as to ascertain as to whether the junior employee(s) had been promoted and whether he was entitled for higher back wages.
5.2. The respondent while endorsing the reply given by the CPIO and 1st Appellate Authority contended that the information sought was held by them in fiduciary capacity and the same was exempted from disclosure u/s 8(1)(d)(e) & (j) f the RTI Act.
6. The Commission after adverting to the facts and circumstances of the case, hearing both the parties and perusal of records, feels that principles of natural justice demand that the information sought by him may be made available to the appellant within 15 days from the date of receipt of this order. Public interest warrants that the information may be made available to him so that the administration of justice can be delivered by ascertaining as to whether some junior had been promoted in terms of Central Government Industrial Tribunal order and whether he was entitled for higher wages. With the aforementioned observations and directions, the appeal is disposed of.
Copy of the decision be provided free of cost to the parties.
Sd/-
Suresh Chandra
Information Commissioner
Citation: Ashok Kumar M Pandya v. CPIO, Bank of India in Second Appeal No. CIC/BKOIN/A/2018/609629, Date of order: 16.08.2019