Dainik Nation News Portal
DAINIK NATION BUREAU
Service details of an employee can’t be shared with an RTI applicant as “personal information” is exempt from disclosure under the Right to Information Act, unless & until there’s a larger public interest involved, the Supreme Court has pronounced.
Citing its earlier verdicts on the issue, the apex court said personal information was exempt from disclosure under Section 8(1)(j) of the Act and can’t be shared with RTI applicants, unless there was larger public interest involved.
Terming the RTI application as “wholly misconceived”, a Bench of Justice RK Agrawal and Justice AM Sapre set aside an order of the Kerala High Court.
By an order dated September 20, 2007, the High Court had asked the DGM of Canara Bank to part with information regarding transfer and posting of the entire clerical staff from January 2002 to July 31, 2006, in all branches in Mallapuram district with CS Shyam, an employee of the bank.
The High Court had upheld the order of the Central Information Commission which had reversed the decisions of Chief Public Information Officer and Public Information Officer not to part with the information asked for by applicant.
Allowing the bank’s appeal against the High Court’s order, the top court restored the decisions of Chief Public Information Officer and Public Information Officer. The Bench said the RTI applicant failed to disclose “larger public interest involved in seeking such information of the individual employee”.
