Scrutiny of loan application

Background:

The appellant sought copy of the entire proceedings / records including the application for sanction of loan, scrutiny and consideration thereof by the Bank, action taken on the representation of the Applicant for restructuring of the account, The PIO declined to provide the information advising him that as he had filed Securitization Appeal before DRT & Writ Petition before the High Court, the matter is Sub-judice. Exemption from disclosure was claimed under the provisions of section 8(1)(b) Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act, there shall be no obligation to give any citizen, information which has been expressly forbidden to be published by any court of law or tribunal or the disclosure of which may constitute contempt of court; Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act, there shall be no obligation to give any citizen, information which has been expressly forbidden to be published by any court of law or tribunal or the disclosure of which may constitute contempt of court; Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act, there shall be no obligation to give any citizen, information which has been expressly forbidden to be published by any court of law or tribunal or the disclosure of which may constitute contempt of court; of the RTI Act. The First Appellate Authority upheld the decision of PIO observing that due to accumulation of number of cases it has taken a little more than 30 days for disposal of the appeal; however, it is within the maximum period of 45 days, permitted u/s 19(6) An appeal under sub-section (1) or sub-section (2) shall be disposed of within thirty days of the receipt of the appeal or within such extended period not exceeding a total of forty-five days from the date of filing thereof, as the case may be, for reasons to be recorded in writing. of the Act. The First Appellate Authority (FAA) also observed that the RTI appeal was not signed by the Applicant; rather by advocate of the applicant.

View of the CIC:

The PIO and FAA claimed exemption under Section 8(1) (b) on the grounds that the appellant has instituted a court case against the bank. The Commission held that exemption under Section 8(1)(b) Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act, there shall be no obligation to give any citizen, information which has been expressly forbidden to be published by any court of law or tribunal or the disclosure of which may constitute contempt of court; Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act, there shall be no obligation to give any citizen, information which has been expressly forbidden to be published by any court of law or tribunal or the disclosure of which may constitute contempt of court; Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act, there shall be no obligation to give any citizen, information which has been expressly forbidden to be published by any court of law or tribunal or the disclosure of which may constitute contempt of court; of the RTI Act has been wrongly claimed and no evidence has been advanced  to show that any court or tribunal had expressly forbidden the disclosure of information sought by the Appellant. On a specific query by the Commission as to how the denial of information could be justified under Section 8(1) of the RTI Act, the respondent could not give any justification. The CIC observed that in any appeal proceedings the onus to prove that the denial of request is justified is on the PIO as per Section 19(5). Since no justification was offered, the Commission concluded that it appears to be denial of information without any reasonable cause. The Commission issued a show cause notice to PIO under Section 20(1) Where the Central Information Commission or the State Information Commission, as the case may be, at the time of deciding any complaint or appeal is of the opinion that the Central Public Information Officer or the State Public Information Officer, as the case may be, has, without any reasonable cause, refused to receive an application for information or has not furnished information within the time specified under sub-section (1) of section 7 or malafidely denied the request for information or knowingly given incorrect, incomplete or misleading information or destroyed information which was the subject of the request or obstructed in any manner in furnishing the information, it shall impose a penalty of two hundred and fifty rupees each day till application is received or information is furnished, so however, the total amount of such penalty shall not exceed twenty-five thousand rupees: Provided that the Central Public Information Officer or the State Public Information Officer, as the case may be, shall be given a reasonable opportunity of being heard before any penalty is imposed on him: Provided further that the burden of proving that he acted reasonably and diligently shall be on the Central Public Information Officer or the State Public Information Officer, as the case may be. of the RTI Act, 2005 asking him to given written submission before the commission as to why shouldn't the penalty be invoked against him.

Comments:

Section 8(1)(b) Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act, there shall be no obligation to give any citizen, information which has been expressly forbidden to be published by any court of law or tribunal or the disclosure of which may constitute contempt of court; Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act, there shall be no obligation to give any citizen, information which has been expressly forbidden to be published by any court of law or tribunal or the disclosure of which may constitute contempt of court; Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act, there shall be no obligation to give any citizen, information which has been expressly forbidden to be published by any court of law or tribunal or the disclosure of which may constitute contempt of court; of the RTI Act can be invoked only if the any court / tribunal had expressly forbidden the disclosure of information sought by the Appellant or the disclosure amounts to contempt of court.

Citation: Mr. Sunil Gupta v/s Allahabad Bank, Mumbai in CIC/SM/A/2011/000552/SG/15487