Can the details of charge sheeted employees be disclosed under RTI?

Background

The appellant sought information pertaining to list of persons who failed three times in the examination in scale I to V from the seniority list within the declared vacancies. He also wanted the details of those employees who are charge sheeted and cases are pending against the officers from the above mentioned seniority list. The Public Information Officer (PIO) provided part information and denied the rest under section 8(1)(d) Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act, there shall be no obligation to give any citizen, information including commercial confidence, trade secrets or intellectual property, the disclosure of which would harm the competitive position of a third party, unless the competent authority is satisfied that larger public interest warrants the disclosure of such information; of the Right to Information (RTI) Act stating that it was confidential in nature.

View of CIC

The Central Information Commission (CIC) directed the PIO to verify the correctness of information already furnished to the appellant and provide additional information in terms of numbers only in case there is a discrepancy. The CIC also directed the PIO to provide information related to the charge-sheeted employees in terms of numbers only. The Commission further observed that giving out information in terms of names of the employees is not required and no larger public interest would be served by such disclosure and may result in causing embarrassment to the employees whose names have been disclosed.

Citation: Mr. M.P. Gajakosh v. New India Assurance Co. Ltd. in Appeal: No. CIC/DS/A/2011/003341