Disclosure of certificates furnished by an employee at the time of appointment
10 Jul, 2013Background
The appellant filed an application under the Right to Information (RTI) Act with the National Aluminum Company Ltd Corporate Office (NALCO) seeking information in respect of an employee such as the date of his posting, his present post etc. He also wanted the copies of various certificates submitted by the said officer such as educational certificate, caste certificate and residence certificate. The Public Information Officer (PIO) denied the information claiming that it was personal in nature and exempted 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.
View of CIC
The Central Information Commission (CIC) observed that all the information furnished by an employee at the time of appointment cannot be said to be personal as some of these certificates form the very basis on which a person is appointed to the post in the public authority. The CIC directed the PIO to provide the date of the first posting of that said person along with his present designation/ post and the copies of his educational, caste and residence certificates.
Comments
All those qualifications which are necessary for a government job are liable to be disclosed to an applicant. However, if the information does not pertain to the minimum qualification needed for the job, there would be little obligation to disclose it.
Citation: Mr. Samar Mahapatra v. National Aluminium Company Ltd Corporate Office in File No. CIC/SM/A/2013/000284
RTI Citation : RTIFI/2013/CIC/1433
Click here to view original RTI order of Court / Information Commission