Central Information Commission
No.CIC/PB/C/2008/0488-SM dated 31.12.2007
Right to Information Act-2005-Under Section (19)
Dated 03.06.2009
Complainant : Shri Subhash Kumar Singh
Respondent : State Bank of India
The Complainant is not present, in spite of notice.
On behalf of the Respondent, Shri Amitava Chatterjee, Chief Manager, is
present.
The brief facts of the case are as under.
2. The Complainant has requested the Branch Manager of a particular Branch, in his
application dated 31 December 2007, for a large number of information, some relating to the
disbursement of loan to farmers and most others regarding the conduct of the PepsiCo vis-a-vis
the farmers. On not receiving any information or reply within the stipulated period, he had first
sent a complaint to the Assistant General Manager of the Bank and, thereafter, to the CIC.
3. During the hearing, the Complainant was not present in spite of notice. The Respondent
was present and made his submissions. He furnished copies of the correspondence between the
Bank and the Complainant. It was submitted that the original application for information had been
addressed to the Branch Manager who was not the CPIO. The CPIO came to know about the
request only when the Complainant’s application addressed to the Assistant General Manager
was transferred to the CPIO. The CPIO, thereafter, replied to the Complainant in a letter dated 25
April 2008 and provided some information in regard to those items which concerned their Branch
but expressed inability to provide any further information in regard to most of the other items
which concerned the PepsiCo. We carefully perused the contents of the application for
information and noted that out of the 17 items of information listed in the application, majority
concerned the conduct of the PepsiCo, a private company having no administrative relationship
with the Public Authority. The CPIO was not expected to respond or provide any information in
regard to the conduct of the PepsiCo with the local farmers. We note that the CPIO had already
provided the information on items concerning them. It is to be specifically noted that the
Complainant had wanted to know about details of the farmers who had been issued Kissan Credit
Card. The CPIO while giving the total number of such Cards, refrained from giving any further
detail about the cardholders as such information was held by the Bank in commercial confidence.
The Complainant, it seems, is under the impression that the Branch should have all the
knowledge about how the PepsiCo acted in the area in distributing potato seeds to the farmers.
No.CIC/PB/C/2008/0488-SM
As the Respondent explained the Bank had nothing to do with this and its entire role was limited
to providing loans to some farmers.
4. In view of the above, there is nothing more to be given by the CPIO by way of
information. However, there has been a delay in dealing with the Complainant’s application. The
Respondent explained that the delay occurred because the original application was addressed to
the Branch Manager who was not the CPIO and even the appeal was addressed to an authority
who was neither the CPIO nor the first Appellate Authority. While this may be true, for a Public
Authority as large as the State Bank of India, locating the CPIO centrally in a state, or for two
states as in this case, at one place is not very helpful. To facilitate delivery of information at the
local level, we expect the Public Authority to appoint CPIOs at the Branch or at the most at the
Regional level and the first Appellate Authority at the Regional or sub -Zonal level, if any. We
hope that the State Bank of India would soon take steps to put in place a more elaborate
information delivery mechanism as contemplated under the Right to Information (RTI) Act.
5. With the above observations, the complaint is disposed off.
6. 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/C/2008/0488-SM