The places of postings and designations in all postings of an official from the time of joining the bank’s service to the date of retirement were denied u/s 8(1)(j) as personal information - CIC: provide the information as sought by the appellant
14 Jan, 2014O R D E R
Facts:
1. The appellant filed an RTI application on 1092012 seeking information about the service details of Shri Shashi Kant Kalgaonkar from 3041974 to 2451993.
2. The CPIO responded on 9102012, denying information to the appellant 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. of the RTI Act on ground of third party information. The appellant filed an appeal with the first appellate authority (FAA) on 17102012. The FAA responded on 20112012 and upheld the views of the CPIO. The appellant approached the Commission on 21122012 in a second appeal.
Hearing:
3. Both parties were present personally in the hearing. The appellant referred to his RTI application of 1092012 and stated that he has raised three questions in his RTI application and that the questions were clear and specific about the service details of a bank official but the respondent has without any application of mind in a mechanical way denied the information to him by citing personal information. The appellant stated that the information could have been conveniently given by the respondent bank but he has been denied the information.
4. The respondent stated that this is obviously a personal information and that there was no public interest in this matter so it was denied.
5. The appellant stated that the information that he is seeking is such which cannot be described as personal information. The appellant further stated that how can the designation held by a public servant like a bank official regarding the places of his postings and the dates of the postings be described as personal information.
6. The appellant stated that he is seeking information on a specific issue. He wants to know the places of postings of the person referred to in the RTI application along with the dates from the date of joining the bank’s service till the time of retirement.
Decision:
7. The respondent is directed to provide to the appellant, within 30 days of this order, the information as stated in para 6 above, i.e., the places of postings and designations in all postings of the official referred to from the time of joining the bank’s service to the date of retirement. Appeal is disposed of. Copy of this order be given free of cost to the parties.
(Vijai Sharma)
Information Commissioner
Citation: Shri Rahul Kumar Goyal v. State Bank of India in Decision No.CIC/VS/A/2013/000313/05658