An LIC agent sought the number of policies/ matured/ surrendered, paidup in his own case - Appellant: his agency had been terminated without prior intimation - PIO: information regarding terminated agents is not available on system - CIC: denial upheld
2 Jan, 2015ORDER
1. The appellant, Shri Prashant Kumar Pattnaik, submitted RTI application dated 16 July 2013 before the Central Public Information Officer (CPIO), Life Insurance Corporation of India, Angul; seeking information regarding number of policies/ matured/ surrendered, paidup in case of agent code 18258E i.e. Shri P K Pattnaik from 1.11.2011 to 25.5.2013.
2. Vide reply dated 19 August 2013, CPIO denied the information on the ground that the there was no option in e feap module to generate maturity/ surrender/ paidup policies for terminated agents. Not satisfied by the CPIO’s reply, the appellant preferred an appeal dated 2 September 2013 to the first appellate authority (FAA) alleging that he had been wrongly denied the information sought by the CPIO concerned. Vide order dated 30 September 2013, FAA upheld the CPIO’s decision.
3. Not satisfied with the response of the public authority, the appellant preferred second appeal before the Commission.
4. The matter was heard by the Commission. The appellant submitted that he was an agent of the LIC and his agency had been terminated by the respondent without giving him any prior intimation. He also submitted that he had already challenged his illegal termination in the Hon’ble High Court of Orissa at Cuttak. He sought information regarding the benefits which he ought to have received on the basis of his previous agency but he didn’t get satisfactory information from the respondents.
5. The respondent submitted that in e feap system (the system in which they maintain information regarding policies) they do not have the facility of extraction of information in case of terminated agents. They keep their records policy wise and if the appellant provides the policy details to them then they may be able to furnish the information subject to the RTI provisions. He also submitted that attempting to collect the information sought for a terminated agent would require lot of manpower resources which was also exempt under section 7(9) An information shall ordinarily be provided in the form in which it is sought unless it would disproportionately divert the resources of the public authority or would be detrimental to the safety or preservation of the record in question. of the RTI Act.
6. The Commission accepts the submissions made by the respondents that they did not have the information sought by the appellant in their computerized information system. The appeal is disposed of.
(Manjula Prasher)
Information Commissioner
Citation: Shri Prashant Kumar Pattnaik v. Life Insurance Corporation of India in Appeal: No. CIC/DS/A/2013/002558/MP