Disclosure of treatment details of deceased sister-in-law
28 Apr, 2012Background
The appellant complained that the Chief Medical Director has not provided the documents collected along with the statements of the concerned doctors, treatment details and the latest developments of the case related to his late sister-in-law. The Public Information Officer (PIO) stated that the same belongs to a third party and is personal in nature. He asked for the consent of the husband of the deceased to disclose the information sought by the applicant as per Section 11 of the RTI Act.
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The appellant informed that he is the brother in law of Late Smt. Reba Biswas and that he wants details of treatment given to his late sister in law by the Doctors in Lihua Hospital. He was however not able to convince the Central Information Commission (CIC) that any public interest was involved in disclosure of this information to him. The Commission held that the information that was available with the Hospital in respect of the treatment given to late Ms. Reba Biswas does indeed belong to a third party and is exempt from disclosure 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; of the RTI Act since the same is being held in a fiduciary relationship by the Doctor. The Commission held that only the husband has the right to receive the information about the treatment given to her late wife. The Commission advised the appellant to produce a letter from late Mrs. Reba’s husband indicating his consent to the information being disclosed to the him), based on which the PIO may provide the details of treatment.
Citation: R K Biswas v. Eastern Railway O/o the Addl. Chief Medical Director in File No. CIC/AD/A/2012/000727
RTI Citation : RTIFI/2012/CIC/241
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