Seizure of bank account of his deceased father by CBI – information denied claiming benefit of schedule II - inability to operate the account resulting in violation of human rights - the case had abated – disclosure ordered
30 Jul, 2013Order
1. Referring to some representations he had sent earlier to the CBI regarding the seizure of the bank account of his deceased father in connection with a case, the Appellant had wanted to know about the action taken on those representations. The CPIO had refused to disclose any information on the ground that the CBI had been exempted from the Right to Information (RTI) Act by a notification of the central government.
2. During the hearing, the Appellant submitted that the CBI had filed a case against his father who passed away, in the meanwhile. He also submitted that the CBI had seized the bank account of his father and they were not able to operate that account new resulting in much hardship to them. Therefore, according to him, this is a case of violation of their human rights as they find it difficult to survive without access to the resources of his father. The Respondent submitted that after the death of the accused, the case had abated and the CBI had already written to the bank concerned that the account was no longer under seizure. Therefore, in his opinion, there should be no difficulty in accessing the bank account.
3. If that is so, we would like the CPIO to write to the Appellant within 10 working days of receiving this order and to inform him about the status of the case. He is also directed to forward the copies of the communications the CBI has already sent to the bank(s) in this regard.
(Satyananda Mishra)
Chief Information Commissioner
Citation: Mr. Ajay Kumar Dhrub v. Central Bureau of Investigation in File No. CIC/SM/C/2012/001166