Information regarding a matter pending before the Debt Recovery Tribunal
8 Feb, 2013Background
The appellant filed an application under the Right to Information (RTI) Act with the Central Bank of India seeking information about the current account of a particular company. The Public Information Officer (PIO) denied the information and asked the appellant to submit the requisite fee.
Proceeding
During the hearing before the Central Information Commission (CIC), the appellant stated that the respondent has been denying him information quoting various reasons. The respondent stated that the matter was before the Debt Recovery Tribunal (DRT) on account of initiation of recovery process hence the information had to be denied. The respondent also argued that there are decisions of the Commission stating that if a legal process is on such as in this case, the information can be obtained only through the court. The appellant stated that the court itself had directed the respondent to show him the files in a certain matter, but when he asked for copies they were denied to him. The appellant further stated that the information is held by the bank and if the bank does not give the information he has nowhere to go.
View of CIC
The Commission observed that the sought information pertains to the appellant and there is insufficient reason to deny the same to him. The CIC directed the respondent to provide the information to the appellant.
Citation: Mr. Ashok V. Ambasana v. Central Bank of India in Decision No. CIC/SM/A/2011/001140/VS/01932
RTI Citation : RTIFI/2013/CIC/1031
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