Central Information Commission
Appeal No.CIC/PB/A/2008/00349-SM dated 29.05.2007
Right to Information Act-2005-Under Section (19)
Dated 05.01.2009
Appellant : Shri Pankesh Manubhai Patel
Respondent : Reserve Bank of India
The Appellant is present in person.
On behalf of the respondents the following were present:-
(1) Shri A. Unnikrishnan, Deputy Legal Adviser
(2) Ms. Anusugaiya, AGM
(3) Shri R.R. Joshi, GM
(4) Shri R.V. Mody, DGM
(5) Shri N. Venugopal, CM (L)The brief facts of the case are as under.
2. The Appellant had approached the CPIO in his letter dated
29.5.2007 seeking a number of information pertaining to guidelines for
remittance between the currency chests maintained in various Branches of
the Bank and some other related information. The CPIO, in his reply
dated 9th July, 2007, provided item-wise reply and declined to disclose
information about the guidelines on transfer of money between currency
chests on the ground that the disclosure of such information would
prejudicially affect the economic interest of the State and, hence, exempt
under Section 8(1) (a) of the Right to Information (RTI) Act. Not satisfied
with this, the Appellant filed an Appeal before the Appellate Authority.
The Appellate Authority decided the appeal on 29th July, 2007 without
going into the merit of the decision of the CPIO and disposed off the
Appeal. It is against this order of the Appellate Authority that he has now
approached this Commission in Second Appeal.
3. We heard the submissions of both the sides. After careful
examination of the information sought and the reply of the CPIO, we are of
the view that the CPIO was right in withholding information in regard to
the transfer of money between currency chests maintained in various
Branches as also the details of the fraud cases reported to the Reserve
Bank of India by the Bank of Baroda. It is noted that the CPIO had given
the cumulative number of fraud cases so reported during the year 2006-07
but did not reveal the names of the borrowers or the details of the account
of the individuals’ claims claiming exemption under Section 8(1)(d) (e)
and (j) of the RTI Act. We do not agree that disclosure of the details of the
fraud cases reported by the Bank of Baroda to the Reserve Bank of India
would amount to disclosure of commercial confidence of certain Third
Parties which may adversely affect their competitiveness. If the Bank
holds those cases as fraud cases, surely, the Public has a right to know
about those who perpetrated the fraud. Hence, we are of the view that the
details such as names of the said borrowers and the amount of fraud in
each case should be revealed. We direct the CPIO to disclose this
information to the Appellant within 10 working days from the receipt of
this order.
4. During the hearing the Appellant was convinced that the
information regarding operation of currency chests should not be
disclosed as it could endanger the safety of the public funds held in the
custody of the Banks. We dispose off this appeal with the above direction.
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.
Sd/-
(Vijay Bhalla)
Assistant Registrar