Is the information about pending adjudication liable to be provided under the RTI Act?
12 Dec, 2012Background
The appellant filed an application under the Right to Information (RTI) Act with the Directorate General of Central Excise Intelligence (DGCEI) seeking to know as to how many cases have been booked by the Office of the Additional Director General of DGCEI Zonal Office for misuse or wrongful availment of exemption Notification pertaining to Industries located in Kutch. He also wanted to know whether any letter was written by Director General (DG) for any of such cases to Board or Chairman CBEC broadly indicating his disagreement with the investigation drawn by the Office of Additional Director General, DGCEI in any of the above cases. The Public Information Officer (PIO) transferred the RTI application to the PIO, DGCEI and also provided requisite information related to cases investigated by DGCEI. As regards another point of the RTI application the information was denied under the provisions of section 8(1)(h) Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act, there shall be no obligation to give any citizen, information which would impede the process of investigation or apprehension or prosecution of offenders; Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act, there shall be no obligation to give any citizen, information which would impede the process of investigation or apprehension or prosecution of offenders; of the RTI Act since the case was still under investigation and the disclosure of information would impede the process of investigation or prosecution of the offenders.
Proceeding
During the hearing before the Central Information Commission (CIC) the respondent submitted that the contention of the appellant that the information sought at one point in any way impede the process of investigation or prosecution of offenders since the Show Cause Notice (SCN) has already been issued to M/s. Global Hi-Tech and there is overwhelming interest involved of the employees of the Company. In this case even though the investigation process leading to issue of SCN is complete but the process of adjudication and determination of final tax liability and sanction of prosecution is yet to be completed.
View of CIC
The Commission observed that requisite information on one point has been provided to the appellant by the PIO DGCEI. As far as information on another point was concerned the process of adjudication in the matter has not yet complete and the respondent have no disclosure obligation under the provisions of section 8(1)(h) Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act, there shall be no obligation to give any citizen, information which would impede the process of investigation or apprehension or prosecution of offenders; Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act, there shall be no obligation to give any citizen, information which would impede the process of investigation or apprehension or prosecution of offenders; of the RTI Act.
Citation: Mr. Sanjay Singhania v. Directorate General of Central Excise Intelligence in Case No. CIC/SS/A/2012/001224
RTI Citation : RTIFI/2012/CIC/864
Click here to view original RTI order of Court / Information Commission