Information regarding Group ‘A’ IRS officers who are facing court cases in CBI court
20 Mar, 2013Background
The appellant filed an application under the Right to Information (RTI) Act with the Additional Director Income Tax (ADIT) and Director General of Income Tax (DGIT) seeking information relating to Group-‘A’ IRS officers who are facing court cases in a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court. The Public Information Officer (PIO) denied the information 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. and 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; of the RTI Act stating that it is related to third party and the disclosure would impede the process of investigation/prosecution.
Proceedings
During the hearing before the Central Information Commission (CIC), the appellant submitted that the information which he has sought is very innocuous and should have been posted by the Central Board of Direct Tax (CBDT) on their website.
View of CIC
The Commission referred to an earlier decision of Supreme Court wherein it was held that the details of all memos issued to the third respondent, show cause notices and orders of censure/punishment etc. are personal information as defined in 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 [Link - http://www.rtifoundationofindia.com/dopt/SCDecision.pdf]. The performance of an employee/ officer in an organisation is primarily a matter between the employee and the employer and normally those aspects are governed by the service rules which fall under the expression ‘personal information’, the disclosure of which has no relationship to any public activity or public interest. The CIC upheld the order of the PIO and rejected the appeal.
Citation: Mr. Pankaj, Kanpur v. Addl. DIT (Vig.) & DGIT (Vig.)-II in File No. CIC/DS/A/2012/000109/RM
RTI Citation : RTIFI/2013/CIC/1137
Click here to view original RTI order of Court / Information Commission