Can the inspection of DPC proceedings be done under RTI?
12 Sep, 2012Background
The appellant was working as D.G.M. in Steel Authority of India Ltd. (SAIL) Corporate Office and he retired from service. He was considered for promotion to the rank GM but did not make the grade. Later he filed an application under the Right to Information (RTI) act seeking PRC grades of DGMs and other allied information.
Proceeding
During the hearing before the Central Information Commission (CIC), the appellant submitted that he is interested in inspecting the DPC proceedings held by SAIL for promotion of DGMs to GM rank for the years for which he was considered. The Public Information Officer (PIO) objected to this request on the ground that the appellant has not requested for inspection in the original RTI application. PIO also contended that inspection of DPC proceedings would amount to disclosure of third party information.
View of CIC
The Central Information Commission (CIC) noted that DPC proceedings are disclosable to the candidates who were considered for promotion but not to third parties and that the appellant is not a third party. The Commission referred to the previous Supreme Court judgment in Central Board of Secondary Education vs. Aditya Bandopadhyay and directed the PIO to give an inspection of the DPC proceedings to the appellant in which he was considered for promotion.
Citation: Mr. A C Mathur v. SAIL, in File No.CIC/LS/A/2012/000160
RTI Citation : RTIFI/2012/CIC/639
Click here to view original RTI order of Court / Information Commission