Seeking action taken on complaint relating to tax evasion under RTI
23 Sep, 2012Background
The appellant filed an application under the Right to Information (RTI) Act seeking the progress made on his complaints relating to tax evasion by eleven people and the action taken against them. The Public Information Officer (PIO) informed the appellant that the office of Joint Director, Income Tax (Investigation) is a part of the office of DG IT (Investigatin) which is excluded organization in terms of section 24 of the RTI Act, hence the information cannot be provided. The First Appellate Authority (FAA) informed the appellant that the TEP received in their office has been taken on record and the same will be dealt with as per rules in this regard.
Proceeding
During the hearing before the Central Information Commission (CIC), the respondent submitted that on the complaint received by the appellant, the department had taken this as a case of tax evasion and all issues mentioned in the application were being looked into. The enquiries in the matter were in progress. He also referred to a previous decision of CIC dt 21.7.2008 (Appeal CIC/AT/A/2007/01271, 01275, 01559, 01560 and 01561) S.P.Goyal Vs DG-IT (Investigation) in support of his contention that the office of DG (Inv) is an excluded organization under section 24 of the RTI Act and hence they are not required to provide information as sought by the appellant. The appellant referred to the CIC decision in the case of Shri M.P. Padmanabhan Vs Income Tax Department, Kannur (File No.CIC/LS/A/2009/000802 dt 3.6.10) and to para 3 of CIC decision in the case of Shri B.B. Singh Vs DG-IT (Inv) Lucknow (file no. CIC/LS/A/2009/01014 dt 1.1.10).
View of CIC
The Central Information Commission (CIC) observed that some kind of a feedback has been provided to the appellant as the FAA had already informed the appellant that the TEP received in their office has been taken on record and the same will be dealt with as per rules in this regard. The Commission rejected the appeal stating that the DGIT (Inv) is an excluded organization in terms of Section 24 of the RTI Act.
Citation: Mr. Stanley Peters v. Income Tax Department in File No.CIC/DS/A/2011/002406/RM
RTI Citation : RTIFI/2012/CIC/667
Click here to view original RTI order of Court / Information Commission