https://www.taxtmi.com/caselaws?id=787099 Income tax returns, assessment particulars and related financial details are held to be personal information protected by Section 8(1)(j) of the RTI Act, and may not be disclosed absent a recorded finding of larger public interest. The taxpayer-department relationship has confidential features but protection chiefly rests on personal-information exemption. A spouse is a "third party" under Section 2(n) and marital status does not displace statutory safeguards. Disclosure in aid of maintenance does not automatically satisfy larger public interest; the RTI route is not the proper mechanism for compelled production of tax records in maintenance litigation, and the competent court, with appropriate safeguards, is the correct forum. en-us Sat, 21 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0530 Thu, 26 Feb 2026 10:43:00 +0530 TaxTMI RSS Generator https://www.taxtmi.com/caselaws?id=787099 Income tax returns, assessment particulars and related financial details are held to be personal information protected by Section 8(1)(j) of the RTI Act, and may not be disclosed absent a recorded finding of larger public interest. The taxpayer-department relationship has confidential features but protection chiefly rests on personal-information exemption. A spouse is a "third party" under Section 2(n) and marital status does not displace statutory safeguards. Disclosure in aid of maintenance does not automatically satisfy larger public interest; the RTI route is not the proper mechanism for compelled production of tax records in maintenance litigation, and the competent court, with appropriate safeguards, is the correct forum. Case-Laws Income Tax Sat, 21 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0530 https://www.taxtmi.com/caselaws?id=787099