Should the entries made by officers in the APAR be disclosed?
29 Jun, 2012Background
The appellant sought certified copy of the entries made by all the officers in his Annual Performance Appraisal Report (APAR) for a certain period. The Public Information Officer (PIO) informed the appellant that his APAR grading was “Very Good” but the remarks made by the reporting/ reviewing officer are withheld under section 10(1) Where a request for access to information is rejected on the ground that it is in relation to information which is exempt from disclosure, then, notwithstanding anything contained in this Act, access may be provided to that part of the record which does not contain any information which is exempt from disclosure under this Act and which can reasonably be severed from any part that contains exempt information. of the Right to Information (RTI) Act. The First Appellate Authority (FAA) upheld the decision of the PIO with the observation that specific information has been provided to the appellant in accordance with the decision of CIC and also as per the instructions issued by the Directorate of Personnel and grievance (DoPT).
View of CIC
The appellant submitted that Hon’ble Supreme Court of India, for fairness and transparency in public administration, has held in their judgment in the case of (Civil Appeal No. 7631 of 2002) that the object of writing the confidential report and making entries is to give an opportunity to the public servant to improve the performance. In compliance with the above-said judgment of the Supreme Court, the Government has issued instructions to the effect that full APAR including the overall grading shall be communicated to the concerned officer. The Central Information Commission (CIC) directed the PIO to provide authenticated copies of annual performance appraisal report for the sought period, to the appellant.
Citation: Mr. Pradeep Sharma v. Airports Authority of India in Case No. CIC/SS/A/2012/000191
RTI Citation : RTIFI/2012/CIC/429
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