Central Information Commission
Appeal No.CIC/WB/A/2008/01502 dated 12.12.2007
Right to Information Act-2005-Under Section (19)
Dated 15.04.2009
Appellant : Shri S.B. Gaikwad
Respondent: Ministry of Defence
The Appellant was present alongwith Shri N.B. Parkhe.
On behalf of the Respondents, Shri Sanjeev Kumar, Shri Puneet Aggarwal
and Shri Rajesh Chadha, were present.
The brief facts of the case are as under.
2. The Appellant had requested the CPIO in his application dated 12
December 2007 four copies of the documents submitted by the All India
Defence Accounts Association in support of further recognition with effect from
the year 2002 as per the CGDA letter of 24 April 2007. The CPIO wrote to the
Appellant on 23 January 2008 and informed him that the consent of the all
India Defence Accounts Association was being sought as required under section
11 of the Right to Information (RTI) Act before making available the copies of
the said documents. In another letter dated 7 February 2008, the CPIO finally
denied the information by invoking the provisions of Section 8(1)(e) and (j) of
the Right to Information (RTI) Act. Against this denial, the Appellant preferred
an appeal before the first Appellate Authority on 18 March 2008. The first
Appellate Authority disposed off the appeal in his order dated 11 April 2008 and
endorsed the decision of the CPIO. Not satisfied with this order, 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 are not in agreement with the CPIO and the first Appellate
Authority that the information sought was in the nature of third-party
CIC/WB/A/2008/01501-SM
information and the consent of the said third-party was required for disclosing
the information. Since the third-party had submitted certain documents in
fulfillment of the requirement for recognition as an Association of Employees,
all such documents had become necessary record of the Public Authority based
on which it had decided to recognise the Association. Therefore, the Public
Authority cannot now claim that the records furnished by the third-party
continue to be the property of the said third-party and is, therefore, exempt
from disclosure.
4. In view of the above, we direct the CPIO to provide to the Appellant
within 10 working days from the receipt of this order copies of all the
documents furnished by the All India Defence Accounts Association (CB), Pune
for further recognition with effect from the year 2002 required to be submitted
as per the CGDA letter No.AN/VI/17003/RECOG/AIDAA/2006 dated 24 April
2007.
5. With the above directions, this appeal is disposed off.
6. 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/2008/01501-SM
