Central Information Commission
No.CIC/PB/A/2008/01141-SM dated 04.02.2008
Right to Information Act-2005-Under Section (19)
Dated 02.06.2009
Appellant : Shri K.N. Venkatagiri Rao
Respondent : Corporation Bank
The Appellant is not present, in spite of notice.
On behalf of the Respondent, the following are present:-
(i) Shri P.R. Karant
(ii) Shri Srikant
The brief facts of the case are as under.
2. The Appellant had, in his application dated 4 February 2008, requested the
CPIO for a few information regarding the advertisement issued by the Bank in a
particular publication. The CPIO, in his reply dated 3 March 2008, denied the
information on the ground that it was personal information the disclosure of which
would cause unwarranted invasion of the privacy of third party and therefore was
exempt from disclosure under Section 8(1) (j) of the Right to Information (RTI) Act.
Against this decision of the CPIO, he preferred an appeal before the first Appellate
Authority on 25 February 2008. The first Appellate Authority rejected his appeal in his
order dated 23 April 2008 and endorsed the decision of the CPIO. In addition to the
arguments of the CPIO, he referred to Section 8(1) (d) of the Right to Information (RTI)
Act in favour of his decision claiming that the information was in the nature of
commercial confidence. It is against this order that the Appellant has come before the
CIC in second appeal.
3. The hearing was conducted through videoconferencing. Both the Appellant and
the Respondent were present in their respective NIC studio. After hearing both be
sides, we are of the view that the information sought was wrongly denied. It was
neither personal information about any third party as contended by the CPIO nor it
was in the nature of commercial confidence as held by the first Appellate Authority.
Such information is not exempt from disclosure under any of the provisions of the
Right to Information (RTI) Act. In fact, such information should be available in the
No.CIC/PB/A/2008/01141-SM
public domain for the sake of transparency. In view of this, we direct the CPIO to
provide to the Appellant within 10 working days from the receipt of this order, the
information sought in its entirety.
4. With the above direction, the appeal is disposed off.
5. Copies of this order be given free of cost to the parties.
Sd/-
(Satyananda Mishra)
Information Commissioner
Authenticated true copy. Additional copies of orders shall be supplied against application and
payment of the charges prescribed under the Act to the CPIO of this Commission.
(Vijay Bhalla)
Assistant Registrar
No.CIC/PB/A/2008/01141-SM