Information regarding vigilance inquiry against misutilisation of public money
25 Nov, 2012
Background
The appellant filed an application under the Right to Information (RTI) Act with the State Bank of India seeking information pertaining to a certain vigilance inquiry that had taken place a few years ago in Hindupur branch, such as, the names with designation and grades with nature of appropriate disciplinary action taken and extent of accountability of all the allegedly erring staff members. The Public Information Officer (PIO) responded point wise to the appellant.
Proceeding
During the hearing before the Central Information Commission (CIC), the respondent stated that some information has been denied under section 8(1)(j)
Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act, there shall be no obligation to give any citizen, 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.
of the RTI Act as the information pertains to the internal processes of the bank. The appellant stated that this is a matter of public interest involving serious irregularities wherein the bank had misused public money of a very high order for their private gains and that the money was not a small amount but was to the extent of Rs.1,60,200 crores. The appellant said that the lack of transparency of the bank and its hesitation to provide the information is a matter of public interest. The appellant also stated that he is a social worker and he is interested in this matter as public funds have been mis-utilised.
View of CIC
The Commission directed the respondent to provide information on the various points in the RTI application and an affidavit stating whether the information provided is complete.
Citation: Mr. C. Jaffer v. State Bank of India in Decision No. CIC/DS/A/2011/003406/VS/01298
RTI Citation : RTIFI/2012/CIC/822
Click here to view original RTI order of Court / Information Commission