CBI CPIO ordered to disclose info on assets, corruption cases promptly

The Central Information Commission directed the CBI CPIO to provide available information on disproportionate assets cases, sanctions sought under the Prevention of Corruption Act, and cases against public servants under the Act within 10 working days. The CPIO was instructed to furnish this data free of charge, resolving the appeal with free copies of the order distributed to both parties.

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Issues:
Request for information on CBI cases since 1980 against public servants for disproportionate assets, sanctions sought for prosecution under the Prevention of Corruption Act, and cases registered under the same Act.

Analysis:
The Appellant had filed several RTI applications seeking detailed information on cases registered by the CBI since 1980 against public servants for possessing assets disproportionate to their known income, sanctions sought for prosecuting public servants under the Prevention of Corruption Act, and the number of cases registered against public servants under the same Act. The CPIO responded that providing such extensive information for a 30-year period would excessively strain CBI resources. The Appellate Authority upheld this decision.

During the hearing, the respondent clarified that the requested information was not centrally maintained in the specific format desired by the Appellant. He explained that pre-computerization, data was manually stored, making retrieval for the specified period impractical without examining each case file. However, the respondent offered to share the available central database information with the Appellant, which the latter accepted.

Consequently, the Central Information Commission directed the CBI CPIO to furnish, within 10 working days, all available information from its various offices on disproportionate assets cases for the period centrally accessible. Additionally, the CPIO was instructed to provide similar central data on sanctions sought under the Prevention of Corruption Act and cases registered against public servants under the Act, all provided free of charge. The appeal was resolved accordingly, with free copies of the order distributed to both parties.

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