CIC: Marks of the appellant can be provided while those of the other candidates is a third party information exempt u/s 8(1)(j) of the RTI Act - CIC: Shortlisting criteria for interview to be provided free of charge u/s 7(6) of the RTI Act within 10 days
25 Aug, 2018Facts:
The appellant vide RTI application dated 21.06.2016 sought information on six points as under;
1. Certified copy of File no. F.1/313/2013-R.V.
2. Name, educational qualification and experience of the list of candidates called for interview.
3. Shortlisting criteria
4. Marks scored by the applicant and the other candidates.
5. Name, Address and Declaration copy of the selectors and experts.
6. Copy of complete documents submitted by the candidates.
The CPIO replied on 05.07.2016. The appellant was not satisfied with the CPIO’s reply and filed first appeal on 30.12.2016. The First Appellate Authority 2 (FAA) vide order dated 16.01.2017 disposed of the first appeal. Aggrieved with the non-supply of the desired information from the respondent authority, the appellant filed second appeal under the provision of Section 19 of the RTI Act before the Central Information Commission on 31.03.2017.
Grounds for Second Appeal
The CPIO did not provide the desired information.
Order
Appellant : Present
Respondent : Shri Dharam Pal, Deputy Secretary cum CPIO, UPSC
During the hearing, the respondent CPIO submitted that they had provided the requisite reply vide their letter dated 05.07.2016 and the First Appellate Authority (FAA)’s order dated 16.01.2017. The reply furnished to the appellant is just and proper and hence the case might be dismissed.
The appellant submitted that he was not satisfied with the reply received from the respondent.
On perusal of the relevant case record, it was noted by the Commission that proper reply was not provided to the appellant on point no. 3 of the said RTI application. A revised reply should have been provided to the appellant as the sought for information is eminently disclosable under the relevant provisions of the RTI Act. On point no.4 only marks of the appellant can be provided. The rest of the sought for information is a third party information exempted u/s 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, hence the same cannot be provided to the appellant under the relevant provision of the RTI Act.
Be that as it may, since no desired information was provided to the appellant in respect of point nos. 3 and 4 of the said RTI application , the respondent CPIO is directed to provide revised point wise reply on point nos. 3 and 4 as discussed above / during the hearing complete in all respects to the appellant as available on record in the form of certified true copies of the 3 documents sought e.g. note sheets, letters, correspondences, e-mails etc.(legible copies), free of charge u/s 7(6) of the RTI Act within 10 days from today. For this purpose, the concerned CPIO/PIO, can take assistance of any other office/department u/s 5(4) of the RTI Act.
The respondent CPIO is further directed to send a report containing the copy of the revised reply and the date of despatch of the same to the RTI appellant within 07 days thereafter to the Commission for record. With the above observation/direction, the appeal is disposed of.
Copies of the order be sent to the concerned parties free of cost.
[Amitava Bhattacharyya]
Information Commissioner
Citation: Vinay Arora v. UPSC in File No: CIC/UPSCM/A/2017/122611, Date of hearing: 19.07.2018