Information regarding the residential restriction of bank employees, service records etc was sought - CIC: Service record & educational qualifications cannot be given to the appellant being third party personal information; Provide Redeployment Policy
19 May, 2015ORDER
1. The appellant submitted RTI application dated February 3, 2014 before the Central Public Information Officer (CPIO), State Bank of India, Moradabad; seeking information regarding rules governing the residential restriction of SBI employees; service records of all the employees working at SBI, Nagina Branch; details regarding Mohd. Junaid working at SBI Nagina Branch; loans distributed by SBI Nagina Branch in the period between January 2013 to 2014 etc.; through a total of 5 points.
2. The appellant preferred appeal dated March 3, 2014 before the FAA, when he did not receive any reply within the stipulated time period under the RTI Act from the CPIO concerned. Vide reply dated March 13, 2014; the CPIO furnished point wise reply to the appellant. No order had been passed by the first appellate authority in this case.
3. Dissatisfied with the response of the public authority, the appellant preferred second appeal before the Commission.
4. The matter was heard by the Commission. The appellant and respondents both were present at the NIC studio for Video Conferencing but due to technical problem with NIC they couldn’t be heard. The appellant requested the Commission to decide the matter on merits.
5. The Commission has observed that the appellant had sought information regarding the residential restriction of the bank employees, service records of all the bank employees working at Nagina Branch, employment details of Mohd. Junaid, list of loan takers etc. through a total of 5 points. The CPIO concerned had provided point wise reply to the appellant. Upon perusal of the records the Commission finds that appropriate reply had been provided to the appellant by the respondents except on point 1 and point 3. Through point 3, the appellant had asked for the list of employees working at Nagina Branch along with their qualifications and their service records. What the respondents gave him a list of employees working at angina, they were quiet about the service record and educational qualifications. The Hon’ble Supreme Court has observed in Girish Ramchandra Deshpande Versus Central Information Commission & Ors., SLP (Civil) No. 27734 of 2011(@ CC 14781/2012) that “…copies of all memos issued to the third respondent, show cause notices and orders of censure/punishment etc. are qualified to be personal information as defined in clause (j) of Section 8(1) of the RTI Act. The performance of an employee/officer in an organization is primarily a matter between the employee and the employer and normally those aspects are governed by the service rules which fall under the expression "personal information", the disclosure of which has no relationship to any public activity or public interest. On the other hand, the disclosure of which would cause unwarranted invasion of privacy of that individual…. ” Therefore service record and educational qualifications cannot be given to the appellant being third party personal information. The Commission directs the respondent to provide a copy of Redeployment Policy/rules or instructions, if any, w.r.t. point 1 of the RTI application to the appellant within 7 days of the receipt of the order of the Commission. The appeal is disposed of.
(Manjula Prasher)
Information Commissioner
Citation: Shri Anwar Khan v. State Bank of India in Appeal No. CIC/MP/A/2014/000947