Information regarding a property taken as collateral for giving a loan was denied - Appellant: the loan has been given against ‘manipulated fraud property’ - CIC: Bank’s interpretation of the sale deed do not fall within the ambit of information
24 Aug, 2014ORDER
1. This matter pertains to an RTI application dated 3.12.2012 filed by the Appellant, seeking information on ten points regarding a property taken as collateral by the Respondent Bank for giving a loan. The CPIO responded on 7.1.2013. Not satisfied with the reply of the CPIO, the Appellant filed an appeal to the First Appellate Authority on 11.1.2013. In his order dated 23.2.2013, the FAA upheld the CPIO’s reply. The Appellant approached the CIC in second appeal on 3.7.2013.
2. We heard the submissions of the Appellant and the Respondents. The representative of the Respondents was not well prepared and was unable to answer some of our queries. The Appellant, however, submitted that the property belongs to a lady, Mrs. Lenina Lalitha and not to Mr. Ramasubramaniam, who has obtained the loan using it as a collateral. Therefore, he had sought the information through his RTI application to clarify the status of the above property. We have considered the documents and the submissions made before us and note that most of the queries in the RTI application seek interpretation of the Respondent Bank regarding the sale deed of the property in question. These queries do not fall within the ambit of information as defined in section 2 of the RTI Act. Further, as far as the substantive matter of the Appellant’s allegation, that the loan has been given against “manipulated fraud property”, is concerned, it cannot be resolved under the RTI Act. The Appellant is at liberty to take up this matter in an appropriate forum. As far as the RTI application is concerned, we see no ground to interfere with the response of the Respondents.
3. With the above observations, the appeal is disposed of.
4. Copies of this order be given free of cost to the parties.
(Sharat Sabharwal)
Information Commissioner
Citation: Shri R Natarajan v. Syndicate Bank in File No. CIC/VS/A/2013/001177/SH