CIC: Dissemination of the guidelines relating to grant of Certificate of Registration to Securitization companies etc. would not only helps the prospective applicants to access information, but would also enhance transparency in the grant of CoRs
6 Dec, 2018O R D E R
1. The appellant filed an application under the Right to Information Act, 2005 (RTI Act) before the Central Public Information Officer (CPIO), RBI, Dept. of Non-Banking Supervision, Mumbai seeking information on four points pertaining to CFM Asset Reconstruction Pvt. Ltd., including, inter-alia, (i) a copy of the application submitted by the company for issue of Certificate of Registration to commence/carry on the business of securitization company along with all the relevant documents, and (ii) copies of the relevant papers and proceedings of the Committee constituted for grant of the Certificate of Registration (CoR) to the Company.
2. The appellant filed a second appeal before the Commission on the grounds that the CPIO has erroneously denied the information sought for under Section 8(1)(d) Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act, there shall be no obligation to give any citizen, information including commercial confidence, trade secrets or intellectual property, the disclosure of which would harm the competitive position of a third party, unless the competent authority is satisfied that larger public interest warrants the disclosure of such information; Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act, there shall be no obligation to give any citizen, information including commercial confidence, trade secrets or intellectual property, the disclosure of which would harm the competitive position of a third party, unless the competent authority is satisfied that larger public interest warrants the disclosure of such information; Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act, there shall be no obligation to give any citizen, information including commercial confidence, trade secrets or intellectual property, the disclosure of which would harm the competitive position of a third party, unless the competent authority is satisfied that larger public interest warrants the disclosure of such information; and (e) of the RTI Act. He contended that the disclosure of the information could act as guidelines/model information for public to apply for CoR, in absence of any open and fair policy for scrutiny of applications for ARC. The appellant requested the Commission to direct the respondent to furnish the desired information to him.
Hearing:
3. The appellant was not present despite notice. The respondent Ms. Veena Srivastava, General Manager, Dept. of Non-Banking Supervisions and Ms. Mini Kuttykrishnan, Asstt. Legal Advisor, RBI, Mumbai attended the hearing through video-conferencing.
4. The respondent submitted that point-wise information as per the available records has been provided to the appellant vide letter dated 07.09.2016. The respondent further stated that the appellant has been provided the constitution of the External Advisory Committee constituted for screening the applications received by the Bank for grant of Certificate of Registration to securitization companies sought vide point no. 2 of the RTI application. However, the information sought vide point nos. 1 and 3 of the RTI application regarding the application along with the documents submitted by CFM Asset Reconstruction Pvt. Ltd. before the Committee for grant of CoR contains documents which are of commercial confidence to the Company and held by the Bank in a fiduciary capacity. Hence, the disclosure of the same has been denied under Sections 8(1)(d) Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act, there shall be no obligation to give any citizen, information including commercial confidence, trade secrets or intellectual property, the disclosure of which would harm the competitive position of a third party, unless the competent authority is satisfied that larger public interest warrants the disclosure of such information; Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act, there shall be no obligation to give any citizen, information including commercial confidence, trade secrets or intellectual property, the disclosure of which would harm the competitive position of a third party, unless the competent authority is satisfied that larger public interest warrants the disclosure of such information; Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act, there shall be no obligation to give any citizen, information including commercial confidence, trade secrets or intellectual property, the disclosure of which would harm the competitive position of a third party, unless the competent authority is satisfied that larger public interest warrants the disclosure of such information; & (e) of the RTI Act. With respect to part information sought vide point no. 3 of the RTI application, there is no record of the procedure followed by the Committee as such and only an internal noting is available in this regard. However, information regarding the documents to be submitted by a Securitization Company for grant of CoR is available on the website of RBI. Moreover, the CPIO has provided the link to the guidelines/circulars issued by RBI after enactment of SARFAESI Act in 2002 sought vide point no. 4 of the RTI application.
Decision:
5. The Commission, after hearing the submissions of the respondent and perusing the records, notes that an appropriate response has not been given to the appellant on point no. 3 of the RTI application. The Commission observes that dissemination of the guidelines/procedure relating to grant of Certificate of Registration to Securitization companies etc. would not only helps the prospective applicants to access information in this regard but would also enhance transparency and accountability in the grant of such CoRs. The Commission, therefore, directs the respondent to provide the web link to the application form and the documents to be submitted by a Securitization Company in order to obtain Certificate of Registration along with the internal noting regarding the procedure of the Committee, after severing information which relates to commercial confidence, or personal information of third parties which is not disclosable under Section 8(1)(d) Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act, there shall be no obligation to give any citizen, information including commercial confidence, trade secrets or intellectual property, the disclosure of which would harm the competitive position of a third party, unless the competent authority is satisfied that larger public interest warrants the disclosure of such information; Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act, there shall be no obligation to give any citizen, information including commercial confidence, trade secrets or intellectual property, the disclosure of which would harm the competitive position of a third party, unless the competent authority is satisfied that larger public interest warrants the disclosure of such information; Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act, there shall be no obligation to give any citizen, information including commercial confidence, trade secrets or intellectual property, the disclosure of which would harm the competitive position of a third party, unless the competent authority is satisfied that larger public interest warrants the disclosure of such information; and (j) of the RTI Act, to the appellant within a period of four weeks from the date of receipt of a copy of this order under intimation to the Commission.
6. With the above observations, the appeal is disposed of. 7. Copy of the decision be provided free of cost to the parties.
Sudhir Bhargava
Information Commissioner
Citation: Pankaj D Purway v. CPIO, Reserve Bank of India in Second Appeal No. CIC/RBIND/A/2017/154972, Dated 16.11.2018