Free of charge copies of statement of accounts of SBI credit cards to RTI applicant
22 Sep, 2012Background
The appellant filed an application under the Right to Information (RTI) Act seeking copies of statement of accounts for the credit card account from the inception of the card till current date; information regarding cost/ fee levied by the company from the cardholder for procuring copies of the statement of accounts for (a) monthly statement of accounts; and complete set of statement of accounts for the entire period of the credit card. The Public Information Officer (PIO) transferred the application to the Vice President (Customer Service), SBI Cards & Payment Services Limited under intimation to the appellant. The appellant did not receive any further reply within the timeframe. On appeal, the First Appellate Authority (FAA) held that State Bank of India (SBI) Cards & Payment Services Limited was a company incorporated under the Companies Act, 1956, having its own legal identity and unconnected with the SBI. The FAA informed that the SBI did not deal with credit card matters and did not owe any responsibility for supplying information/document. He also referred to an earlier decision of the Commission of 2007, wherein it was stated that either the SBI Cards by itself or SBI itself could be declared to be the public authority for the services in question.
Proceeding
During the hearing before the Central Information Commission (CIC), both the respondent and the appellant were not present. However, the representative of SBI Cards stated that the information which was being sought by the appellant related to the procuring of duplicate copies of statement of accounts. He informed that for the initial or original statement of accounts, SBI Cards do not charge anything but, duplicate copies are made available on payment basis. He further submitted that the copies are being made available to the appellant free of charge as a onetime gesture.
View of CIC
The Central Information Commission (CIC) rejected the appeal stating that no further action is required to be taken on the RTI application as the copies of the statement of accounts sought by the appellant are being made available to him. The Commission also issued a show-cause notice to the respondent to explain the delay in taking action and why action should not be taken against him under the RTI Act.
Citation: Mr. Debasish Chakraborty v. State Bank of India, in Decision No.CIC/SM//2009/001846AT/VS/00226
RTI Citation : RTIFI/2012/CIC/666
Click here to view original RTI order of Court / Information Commission