Is PIO supposed to forward a copy of third party notice to the RTI applicant?
7 Mar, 2013Background
The appellant filed an application under the Right to Information (RTI) Act with the APFC EPFO (Employee Provident Fund Organisation) Sub-Regional Office seeking information/ documents/ office record with salary slips of his ex-wife. He also wanted the details of Employee Provident Fund (EPF) in this regard.
Proceedings
During the hearing before the Central Information Commission (CIC), the Public Information Officer (PIO) submitted that he had written a letter to the appellant’s wife as per section 11 of the RTI Act but she declined to disclose the information contending that she has threat to life and goods. The PIO further stated that this has been communicated to the appellant. The appellant stated that neither a copy of the letter written by the PIO to his wife nor the respondent’s reply has been received by him.
View of CIC
The Commission held that accounts of customers/ subscribers maintained at post office/ banks /EPFO are held under fiduciary relationship and hence information relating to such accounts is exempt from disclosure under section 8(1)(e) Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act, there shall be no obligation to give any citizen, information available to a person in his fiduciary relationship, unless the competent authority is satisfied that the larger public interest warrants the disclosure of such information; of the RTI Act, unless the seeker of information is able to show larger public interest to justify the disclosure. However, the CIC directed the PIO to forward a copy of his letter to the appellant.
Citation: Mr. Pankaj Jaychand Agashe v. APFC EPFO Sub-Regional Office in File No. CIC/BS/A/2012/000025/1921
RTI Citation : RTIFI/2013/CIC/1102
Click here to view original RTI order of Court / Information Commission