Appellant sought the caste of candidates recruited as Training Pilot claiming that Air India Ltd. did not conduct any caste verification & certain candidates have submitted fake caste certificates - CIC: Disclosure of caste details is exempt u/s 8(1)(j)

Information sought:
The Appellant sought to know the caste and state of OBC candidates recruited to the post of Senior Training Pilot/Training Pilot post between 2015-2017 whose name was provided vide letter no. HPD01/RTI dated 22.02.2017.

Grounds for the Second Appeal:
The CPIO has not provided the desired information.

Relevant Facts emerging during Hearing:
The following were present:-
Appellant: Represented by Arun Kumar in person.
Respondent: Ashwani Sehgal, GM(P) & CPIO and Ms Ritu Jain, Sr. Mgr(P), Air India Ltd., Airlines House, Gurudwara Rakabganj Road, New Delhi present in person.
CPIO submitted that since the information sought in the RTI Application pertained to Northern/Western and CTE Hyderabad Regions of Air India Ltd., the same was transferred to these regions vide email dated 29.11.2017 and the same was informed to the Appellant vide letter dated 30.11.2017. He further submitted that the Appellant has till date filed 112 RTI Applications on the same subject matter i.e caste/verification of caste certificates of SC/ST/OBC employees with Air India Hqrs. and its Northern/Eastern/Western and Southern Region. That, these RTI Applications have created a confusing and misleading situation, perhaps why, the reply on the instant RTI Application was inadvertently kept pending in the regions. That, however, Northern & Western Region of Air India Ltd. have now sent their reply to the Appellant vide letters dated 13.05.2019 and 10.05.2019, respectively. That, in a similar case heard by this bench on 01.05.2019 in File No.CIC/AIRIN/A/2017/158297/SD, the denial of caste details of the third parties was upheld 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. 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 RTI Act.
Rep. of the Appellant stated that it has been gathered by them that Air India Ltd. did not conduct any caste verification at the time of recruitment and there are certain candidates who have submitted fake caste certificates which is why the information sought is crucial.

Decision
Commission observes from the perusal of facts on record that the CPIOs of Northern & Western Region of Air India Ltd. have already provided the information as sought in the RTI Application regarding 4 out of the 5 candidates named therein. As such, no other relief is warranted in the matter as the disclosure of caste details of third parties is exempt 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. 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 RTI Act. Further, the contention of the Rep. of Appellant requesting disclosure of the same is summarily rejected for lack of any material on record to ascribe larger public interest in such disclosure.
The appeal is disposed of accordingly.

Divya Prakash Sinha
Information Commissioner

Citation: Satpal v. Air India Ltd. in File No: CIC/AIRIN/A/2018/101751/SD, Date of Decision: 15/05/2019