Seeking details of employees on whom penalty was imposed by CVC
8 Apr, 2013Background
There was a news item published in the Indian Express according to which the CVC had imposed fine on 116 government employees. Referring to it, the applicant filed an application under the Right to Information (RTI) Act with Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) seeking the details of these employees and asked whether it included some employees of the Vijaya Bank, involved in some housing loan scam. The Public Information Officer (PIO) stated that the CVC did not impose any such fine on the Central Government employees. It had only advised initiation of major penalty proceedings against 116 different Central Government. He also stated that the details of the employees against whom such advice had been given were not available in a compiled form centrally. The PIO denied the information under section 8(1)(h) Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act, there shall be no obligation to give any citizen, information which would impede the process of investigation or apprehension or prosecution of offenders; of the RTI Act stating that it would impede the process of investigation / inquiry in all these cases.
View of CIC
The Central Information Commission (CIC) held that the PIO was correct in not disclosing the details as all these disciplinary cases would be in various stages of completion and the disclosure of the details could impede the disciplinary proceedings. The CIC rejected the appeal stating that the appellant did not specify any name or any particular case but relied on some news report for seeking general information about the 116 employees.
Citation: Mr. V S Nathan v. Central Vigilance Commission in File No. CIC/SM/A/2012/001555
RTI Citation : RTIFI/2013/CIC/1181
Click here to view original RTI order of Court / Information Commission