Supreme Court refused to stay the notices issued by RBI to PNB and UBI
4 Jul, 2021In the case of Reserve Bank of India v. Jayantilal N. Mistry, the Apex Court had ordered for disclosure of certain information relating to the financial institutions like the details of the defaulters, inspection reports etc. Despite passage of sufficient time, the information remains elusive which raises questions about the effectiveness of the RTI Act, 2005 in providing timely information to the applicants in a cost effective manner. Through separate appeals, different financial institutes such as Experian Credit Information Company Pvt. Limited, Babaji Datey Mahila Sahakari Bank Limited, Jammu & Kashmir Bank Limited ans Jain Co-operative Bank Limited approached the Central Information Commission (CIC) separately seeking stay of the order of the FAA of RBI claiming that disclosure would cause irreparable loss and injury to their institution while no prejudice would be caused to the RTI applicant. Vide separate orders, the CIC has stayed the order and has posted the case for hearing.
The Supreme Court has already deliberated upon the issue in Reserve Bank of India v. Jayantilal N. Mistry and has directed that such information is liable to be disclosed. Therefore, the interim order of the CIC restraining the CPIO from releasing the information appears to be without merit. On 02.07.2021, a two judge bench of the Supreme Court refused the prayers made by Punjab National Bank and Union Bank of India to grant stay to the RTI notices issued to them by the Reserve Bank of India. The Court has listed the case for hearing.
The Record of proceedings of the Video conferencing is enclosed below.
RTI Citation : RTIFI/2021/CIC/1498
Click here to view original RTI order of Court / Information Commission