Can the Government employee’s official details be held as personal information?
2 Mar, 2013Background
The appellant filed four applications under the Right to Information (RTI) Act with the Geological Survey of India (GSI) seeking variety of information relating to personnel matters as the verification of the personal/ account/ pension records with some other details of some employees. The Public Information Officer (PIO) provided some information and denied the rest 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 holding that it was personal information.
View of CIC
Agree with some of the decisions of the public authority, the Central Information Commission (CIC) observed that not all information sought by the Appellant can be said to be personal information merely because it relates to other individuals. As these individuals happen to be government employees, certain personal details about them cannot be held back from the public and should be disclosed. The CIC directed to disclose:
i. The total amount of medical reimbursement to R Ramakrishna Rao, a former employee and now deceased;
ii. the list of contractors appointed by the office of the DDG, GSI, Southern Region to provide outsourced employees as on 30 January 2012 including the total number and class of employees supplied by each such contractor;
iii. the copies of the relevant records including file noting in respect of the promotion of two employees named PN Ramesh and PS Sastry ; and
iv. permission to inspect the personal/ account/ pension records of a deceased employee named P Thirupal.
Citation: Mr. D Rajkumar v. Geological Survey of India in File No.CIC/SM/A/2012/001279, 1280, 1281 & 1705
RTI Citation : RTIFI/2013/CIC/1084
Click here to view original RTI order of Court / Information Commission