Letter written by MP to Prime Minister on Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics sought under RTI

Background        

The appellant sought the certified copies of all documents and a letter written by the Member of the Parliament to the Prime Minister of India on Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics (SINP) along with the action taken in response to the said letter. The Public Information Officer (PIO) denied the information stating that the available part of the letter is incomplete and confidential in nature. The First Appellate Authority (FAA) also denied the information stating that the letter has been marked and classified as Confidential’ & addressed to the Director, SINP, it cannot be de-classified at this level and handed over by the Director’s office and it is exempted under section 8(1) (e) of the RTI Act being Fiduciary in nature.

View of CIC

The Central Information Commission (CIC) directed the PIO to provide the information to the appellant stating that the information provided in discharge of a statutory requirement cannot be considered to have been given in a fiduciary relationship. In the instant case the sought information was given by one public authority to another and this certainly cannot qualify information as exempt under fiduciary capacity.

Comments

This interpretation of the CIC appears to vary from that of decisions of the other benches. Third party, as per the definition of the RTI Act, includes a public authority and hence any information provided by a public authority to another public authority is includible in the definition of the third party information.

Citation: Mr. Supratic Chakraborty v. Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics in Decision No. CIC/SG/A/2012/000945/18910