Seeking asset and liability statement of a bank employee under RTI
26 Mar, 2013
Background
The appellant filed an application under the Right to Information (RTI) Act with the State Bank of India (SBI) seeking information related to asset and liability statement of a certain employee of the bank. 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.
of the RTI Act stating that it was personal information.
Proceedings
During the hearing before the Central Information Commission (CIC), the appellant stated that the information about assets and liabilities cannot be deemed to be personal as this has been collected by the bank and is in the nature of public data. He argued that the information has to be provided by the respondent to enable continuance as bank employee. The appellant reiterated that matters as assets and liabilities, medical benefits and income tax returns were all in the nature of personal information.
View of CIC
The Commission rejected the appeal observing that the respondent has not contravened the RTI Act in denying the information in question 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.
.
Citation: Mr. Avinash Kumar v. State Bank of India in Decision No. CIC/DS/A/2011/004206/VS/02515
RTI Citation : RTIFI/2013/CIC/1152
Click here to view original RTI order of Court / Information Commission