Should Income Tax Statement of a person be disclosed to his brother under RTI?
13 Feb, 2013Background
The appellant filed an application under the Right to Information (RTI) Act with the Punjab National Bank (PNB) seeking information relating to income tax statement including form16 of the last ten years of his younger brother. The Public Information Officer (PIO) denied the information stating that this was third party information and the concerned party had not given his consent.
Proceeding
During the hearing before the Central Information Commission (CIC), the appellant stated that he had sought information from the bank on two counts (i) the income tax returns including form16 of the last 7 to 10 years; and (ii) a copy of the medical reimbursement bills both related to his younger brother. The respondent stated that the documents pertaining to income tax are not a concern of the bank and that if any documents pertaining to income tax are required by any citizen, they have to approach the Income Tax Department. The respondent further elaborated that the appellant’s brother was an employee of the bank and that the RTI application has been triggered by a family dispute with which the bank would not wish to get involved.
View of CIC
The Commission rejected the appeal stating that the sought information is related to third party.
Citation: Mr. P. N. Tandon v. Punjab National Bank Insurance & Audit Section in Decision No. CIC/SM/A/2011/001221/VS/01911
RTI Citation : RTIFI/2013/CIC/1042
Click here to view original RTI order of Court / Information Commission