Under RTI, can a husband obtain EPF account statement of his wife?
12 Jun, 2013Background
The appellant filed an application under the Right to Information (RTI) Act with the Employees' Provident Fund Organization (EPFO) seeking the details of EPF account number and EPF account statement of her wife from date of opening of account till date. The Public Information Officer (PIO) denied the information.
Proceedings
During the hearing the before Central Information Commission (CIC), the PIO stated that the appellant has a marital dispute with his wife and is seeking details of her EPF account including the balance. He submitted that this information related to a third party and that the subscriber had strongly opposed the disclosure and hence the exemption had been claimed 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; 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. The PIO also stated that he did not see any larger public purpose to override the objections of the third party.
View of CIC
The Commission ruled that accounts of customers/ subscribers maintained at post office/ banks/ EPFO are held under fiduciary relationship. Hence information relating to such accounts is exempt from disclosure to third party 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; 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 unless the seeker of information is able to show larger public interest to justify the disclosure.
Citation: Mr. R. K. Behera v. EPFO in File No. CIC/BS/A/2012/000837/2582
RTI Citation : RTIFI/2013/CIC/1357
Click here to view original RTI order of Court / Information Commission