Details about the spouse for appropriate maintenance allowance

Background

The legally wedded wife of a Postman living separately due to estrangement with her husband sought the copy of her husband’s latest salary slip; date on which he got the permanent job of Postman along with copy of the order; and his service number. The information was denied by the PIO and on appeal, the First Appellate Authority refused to disclose this information on the ground that it was purely personal information.

View of the CIC

The appellant appeared before the Central Information Commission along with her brother and requested for hearing a day before the scheduled date for hearing. As she had travelled all the way from Karaur (Maharashtra), her request was accepted and she was heard. The appellant pleaded that she is not divorced yet and has sought this information for getting appropriate maintenance allowance from the court to bring up her two young children. She claimed that being a legally wedded wife, she cannot be treated as a third party.

The Commission agreed with the submission of the appellant and held that being the legally wedded wife still, she is entitled to the requested information. The Commission noted that the salary of every Government employee is disclosable under section 4(1) (b) (x) of the RTI Act. Hence, the Commission directed the PIO to disclose the information sought by the appellant.

Comments

While the order for the disclosure is just and proper, one cannot agree with the view of the Commission that an estranged wife is not a third party.

Citation: Smt. Laxmi Ramesh Sawekar v. Smt. Laxmi Ramesh Sawekar in file no. CIC/LS/A/2011/002768