Expenditure on treatment of Smt. Sonia Gandhi under RTI

Background        

The appellant filed a RTI application to PMO seeking the expenditure incurred on the treatment of Smt. Sonia Gandhi in the USA during August - September 2011. The Public Information Officer (PIO), PMO transferred his application to various other public authorities. The PIO concerned in each public authority informed the appellant that they had no record to show any expenditure having been made. The appellant was keen to know about the details of any expenditure incurred by the government in this regard.

View of CIC

The Central Information Commission (CIC) observed that neither any reimbursement for any such expenditure was claimed by the individual concerned from the public authorities nor any expenditure was made in this regard. The Commission rejected the appeal stating that the government has incurred no expenditure in this regard and that there is no information to be disclosed about the likely expenditure. The Commission also stated that the expenditure made by any individual on the treatment, in India or abroad, is private information and cannot be the subject matter of an RTI application.

Citation: Mr. Naveen Kumar v. Prime Minister’s Office, Ministry of External Affairs, Ministry of Parliament Affairs, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, National Advisory Council & Lok Sabha Secretariat in File No.CIC/SM/C/2011/001470