Central Information Commission
Appeal No. CIC/PB/A/2008/00614-SM dated 02.04.2008
Right to Information Act-2005 - Under Section (19)
Dated 14.01.2009
Appellant: Ashwani Joshi
Respondent: Central Bank of India
Appellant is present in person.
On behalf of the Respondent, the following are present:
(i) Sh. S. C. Dhawan, Asstt. Regional Manager
(ii) Sh. Rajesh Sharma, Law Officer
(iii) Sh. Y. K. Shukla, DGM
The brief facts of the case are as under:
2. The Appellant had requested the PIO of the Bank in his letter dated 22
October 2007 to certify a large number of handwritten documents. Besides, he
had also asked for many other details about several documents and the deeds
filed with the Bank in the past. The CPIO, in his reply dated 16 November 2007,
informed the Appellant that those documents, copies of which the Appellant had
sought, were not available with the Bank and had been deposited in the Court.
He, however, provided photocopies of the documents, more legible than the ones
which the Appellant had enclosed with his application. The Appellant was not
satisfied and approached the Appellate Authority in his appeal dated 6 December
2007. The Appellate authority decided his appeal in his order dated 7 January
2008 and upheld the decision of the CPIO. He also assured him that as and when
copies of those documents sought by the Appellant would be available from the
Court, the same would be provided to the Appellant. Not content with this order,
the Appellant has now approached the Commission in second appeal.
3. During the hearing, we carefully examined all the documents filed with the
appeal. We heard the submissions of both the sides. The Respondent claims that
many of the documents about which the Appellant had mentioned in his original
application were lying in the Debt Recovery Tribunal and were not available in
the bank at the time he sought the information. On the other hand, the Appellant
claims that he has already seen the documents and records filed by the Bank in
the Tribunal but did not find those documents among the said records. In other
words, he has alleged that the Bank had not given correct information about the
documents.
4. In respect of item number 1 in the application of the Appellant, he had
asked for a legible copy of the Mortgage Register. We find that the Respondent
had already provided him with a copy of the relevant page of the said Register.
However, during the hearing, the Respondent offered to give a typed copy of the
relevant page to the Appellant. As far as the item number 2 is concerned, the
Respondent explained that they had filed the relevant document in the Civil
Court in Jalandhar at the relevant time. However, in the meanwhile, they
mentioned that the original document had been received back by them and this
document was available in their respective branch. It was agreed that the
Appellant would inspect this document in the respective branch on 20 January
2009. We note that some of the information sought by the Appellant is not very
clear. For example, he has asked for a confirmation from the Bank if the original
document shown at page 7 of the enclosures is available with the Bank or the
documents at page 9 and 10 of the enclosures were available at present. At item
number 5 of the list of information, he had wanted to know why the Bank
exempted the Partition Deed of 8.5.1957 from the process of recovery and
auction. We are of the view that such queries need not be answered as these do
not strictly fall within the definition of information. Thus, in view of the fact that
the Bank has provided all the information in their possession and has now agreed
to provide some more after receiving those back from the Court, there is nothing
more to be done in this case.
5. We, therefore, dispose off this case with the above observations. 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.
Sd/-
(Vijay Bhalla)
Assistant Registrar