Should the details of bank transactions be disclosed for settlement of a dispute?
13 Dec, 2012Background
The appellant filed an application under the Right to Information (RTI) Act with the Union Bank of India seeking information regarding ATM transactions by the customers in a particular branch of the bank including the number of withdrawals and specifically with respect to an amount of Rs. 24,000. The Public Information Officer (PIO) informed that the bank was required to maintain secrecy of its customers and denied the details stating that the matter was of fiduciary relationship 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.
Proceedings
During the hearing before the Central Information Commission (CIC), the appellant stated that he had sought this information because he needed to clear his name in a certain matter. The respondent stated that the information was denied because the account number mentioned in the RTI application belonged to a lady customer of the bank and that the appellant had no relation to that account. The respondent further stated that this appellant and some others had filed a number of appeals earlier seeking a number of information about this account. The respondent also submitted that there is some dispute pending between the appellant and his family on one hand and the daughter in law on the other hand. The respondent said that the appellant has been seeking information about the account of his daughter in law to make use of it in connection with the pending dispute.
View of CIC
The Central Information Commission (CIC) accepted the arguments put forth by the respondent and rejected the appeal.
Citation: Ms. Sumitra Jaiswal v. Union Bank of India in Decision No. CIC/SM/A/2011/002015/VS/01088
RTI Citation : RTIFI/2012/CIC/870
Click here to view original RTI order of Court / Information Commission