Disclosure of Bank Loan under Prime Minister's self-employment programme through RTI
22 Feb, 2012
Background
The appellant wanted information regarding the borrowers of a particular branch under the Prime Minister's self-employment programme. The PIO denied the information by claiming that it was personal information of third party customers of the bank and was exempt from disclosure. On appeal, the First Appellate Authority endorsed this decision.
View of CIC
The Commission observed that in case of normal loans, the account details are exempt from disclosure in terms of the provisions of Section 8 (1)(d) of the RTI Act. However, in loan cases involving an element of subsidy, the RTI Act allows the disclosure of certain key information regarding the borrowers so as to bring in greater transparency in the dispersal of state subsidy to individual citizens. Therefore, the Commission directed the PIO to provide a list of all such borrowers for the relevant period including the total amount of loan sanctioned in each case and related information.
Citation: Mr. Ramashanker Tiwari v. Bank of Baroda in file no. CIC/SM/A/2011/000533
RTI Citation : RTIFI/2012/CIC/101
Click here to view original RTI order of Court / Information Commission