Central Information Commission
Appeal No.CIC/WB/A/2008/00529-SM dated 27.08.2007
Right to Information Act-2005-Under Section (19)
Dated 17.04.2009
Appellant : Shri Rajender Singh
Respondent : Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited,
Department of Atomic Energy (DAE)
The Appellant was present.
On behalf of the Respondent, Shri R.R. Kakde, CPIO, was present.
The brief facts of the case are as under.
2. The Appellant had requested the CPIO on 21 November 2007 four
copies of a large number of documents in respect of another employee of
the Company. The CPIO replied on 7 December 2007 and denied most of
the information on the ground that it was personal information the
disclosure of which had no relationship to any public activity or interest
and was exempt under Section 8(1) (j) of the Right to Information (RTI)
Act. He, however, provided him with the copy of a particular letter
sought by the Appellant. Not satisfied with this reply, the Appellant
preferred an appeal before the first Appellate Authority on 5 January
2008. It appears that the first Appellate Authority did not pass any order
on his appeal. The Appellant has now come before the CIC in Second
Appeal.
3. During the hearing, both the parties were present and made their
submissions. We note with concern that the first Appellate Authority did
not pass any order when the appeal was preferred before him. On
careful examination of the information sought, we find that the CPIO
was not particularly right in denying all the information as exempt under
Section 8(1) (j) of the Right to Information (RTI) Act. We are of the view
CIC/WB/A/2008/00529-SM
that except the information sought in paragraphs 8 and 9 of the
Appellant’s original application, the remaining information should be
provided to the Appellant those being official communications sent by
the Company to one of its employees or pertaining to such records which
the Company ordinarily maintains. Therefore, we direct the CPIO to
provide to the Appellant within 10 working days from the receipt of this
ordercopies of all such documents listed in paragraphs 2 to 7 of his
application dated 21 November 2007, if available. If, for some reason, all
or some of these records are no longer available with the Company, the
CPIO must clearly state the date on which such records were
destroyed/weeded out following any internal guidelines of the company
regarding maintenance of records.
4. With the above directions, this appeal is disposed off.
5. Copies of this order be given free of cost to the parties.
(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
CIC/WB/A/2008/00529-SM