TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2013 (4) TMI 399
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....tion 6 of the Right to Information Act, 2005 (hereinafter referred to as the 'RTI Act') on 7th October, 2009 seeking the copies of all note sheets and correspondence pages of file relating to one Ms. Jyoti Balasundram, Member/CESTAT. The Under Secretary, who is the CPIO denied the information by impugned letter dated 15th October, 2009 on the ground that the information sought attracts Clause 8(1)(j) of the RTI Act, which reads as follows:- "R-20011-68/2009 - ADIC - CESTAT Government of India Ministry of Finance Department of Revenue New Delhi, the 15.10.09 To Shri R. K. Jain 1512-B, Bhishm Pitamah Marg, Wazir Nagar, New Delhi - 110003 Subject: Application under RTI Act. Sir, Your RTI application No.RTI/09/2406 dated 7.10.2009 seeks information from File No.27-3/2002 Ad-1-C. The file contains analysis of Annual Confidential Report of Smt. Jyoti Balasundaram only which attracts clause 8 (1) (j) of RTI Act. Therefore the information sought is denied. Yours faithfully, (Victor James) Under Secretary to the Govt. of India" 4. On an appeal under Section 19 of the RTI Act, the Director (Headquarters) and Appellate Authority by its order dated 18th December, 2009 disallow....
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..... The file contains no other information, which can be segregated and provided to the Appellant. 7. In view of the above, the appeal is disallowed." 5. Thereafter, the appellant preferred a second appeal before the Central Information Commission under Section 19 (3) of the RTI Act which was also rejected on 22nd April, 2010 with the following observations:- "4. Appellant's plea is that since the matter dealt in the above- mentioned file related to the integrity of a public servant, the disclosure of the requested information should be authorized in public interest. 5. It is not in doubt that the file referred to by the appellant related to the Annual Confidential Record of a third-party, Ms. Jyoti Balasundaram and was specific to substantiation by the Reporting Officer of the comments made in her ACRs about the third - party's integrity. Therefore, appellant's plea that the matter was about a public servant's integrity per-se is not valid. The ACR examines all aspects of the performance and the personality of a public servant - integrity being one of them. An examination of the aspect of integrity as part of the CR cannot, therefore, be equated with the vigilance enquiry agains....
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....ce to the concerned officer whose ACR was sought for. If that officer, pleads private defence such defence has to be examined while deciding the issue as to whether the private defence is to prevail or there is an element of overriding public interest which would outweigh the private defence. 8. Mr. Prashant Bhushan, learned counsel for the appellant submitted that the appellant wanted information in a separate file other than the ACR file, namely, the "follow up action" which was taken by the Ministry of Finance about the remarks against 'integrity' in the ACR of the Member. According to him, it was different from asking the copy of the ACR itself. However, we find that the learned Single Judge at the time of hearing ordered for production of the original records and after perusing the same came to the conclusion that the information sought for was not different or distinguished from ACR. The learned Single Judge held that the said file contains correspondence in relation to the remarks recorded by the President of the CESTAT in relation to Ms. Jyoti Balasundaram, a Member and also contains the reasons why the said remarks have eventually been dropped. Therefore, recordings made ....
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.... "Section 8 - Exemption from disclosure of information.- (1) Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act, there shall be no obligation to give any citizen,-- xxx xxx xxx xxx xxx xxx (j) information which relates to personal information the disclosure of which has no relationship to any public activity or interest, or which would cause unwarranted invasion of the privacy of the individual unless the Central Public Information Officer or the State Public Information Officer or the appellate authority, as the case may be, is satisfied that the larger public interest justifies the disclosure of such information: Provided that the information which cannot be denied to the Parliament or a State Legislature shall not be denied to any person." 13. On the other hand Section 11 deals with third party information and the circumstances when such information can be disclosed and the manner in which it is to be disclosed, if so decided by the Competent Authority. Under Section 11(1), if the information relates to or has been supplied by a third party and has been treated as confidential by the third party, and if the Central Public Information Officer or a State Public Information Offic....
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....ns of RTI Act held that documents produced in a domestic enquiry cannot be treated as documents relating to personal information of a person, disclosure of which will cause unwarranted invasion of privacy of such person. The Court further held that the confidential reports of the employees maintained by the employer cannot be treated as records pertaining to personal information of an employee and publication of the same is not prohibited under Section 8(1) (j) of the RTI Act. 15. The Delhi High Court in Arvind Kejriwal vs. Central Public Information Officer reported in AIR 2010 Delhi 216 considered Section 11 of the RTI Act. The Court held that once the information seeker is provided information relating to a third party, it is no longer in the private domain. Such information seeker can then disclose in turn such information to the whole World. Therefore, for providing the information the procedure outlined under Section 11(1) cannot be dispensed with. The following was the observation made by the Delhi High Court in Arvind Kejriwal (supra): "22. Turning to the case on hand, the documents of which copies are sought are in the personal files of officers working at the levels of ....
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....The mere fact that inspection of such files was permitted, without following the mandatory procedure under Section 11(1) does not mean that, at the stage of furnishing copies of the documents inspected, the said procedure can be waived. In fact, the procedure should have been followed even prior to permitting inspection, but now the clock cannot be put back as far as that is concerned. 25. The logic of the Section 11(1) RTI Act is plain. Once the information seeker is provided information relating to a third party, it is no longer in the private domain. Such information seeker can then disclose in turn such information to the whole world. There may be an officer who may not want the whole world to know why he or she was overlooked for promotion. The defence of privacy in such a case cannot be lightly brushed aside saying that since the officer is a public servant he or she cannot possibly fight shy of such disclosure. There may be yet another situation where the officer may have no qualms about such disclosure. And there may be a third category where the credentials of the officer appointed may be thought of as being in public interest to be disclosed. The importance of the post h....
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....r and also details viz. movable and immovable properties and also the details of his investments, lending and borrowing from banks and other financial institutions. Further, he has also sought for the details of gifts stated to have been accepted by the third respondent, his family members and friends and relatives at the marriage of his son. The information mostly sought for finds a place in the income tax returns of the third respondent. The question that has come up for consideration is: whether the abovementioned information sought for qualifies to be "personal information" as defined in clause (j) of Section 8(1) of the RTI Act. 12. We are in agreement with the CIC and the courts below that the details called for by the petitioner i.e. copies of all memos issued to the third respondent, show-cause notices and orders of censure/punishment, etc. are qualified to be personal information as defined in clause (j) of Section 8(1) of the RTI Act. The performance of an employee/officer in an organisation is primarily a matter between the employee and the employer and normally those aspects are governed by the service rules which fall under the expression "personal information", the d....