Indian Express: Mumbai: Friday, August 28, 2015.
The Supreme
Court has refused to entertain a plea by former Information Commissioner
Shailesh Gandhi, who wanted copies of the Income Tax returns of former Maharashtra
deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar under the RTI Act. A bench of Justice M Y
Eqbal and Justice C Nagappan declined Gandhi’s appeal against the Bombay High
Court order, saying there was no merit in his arguments.
Gandhi who is
currently the honourary chairman of the Technical Advisory Committee set up by
the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai to advise on RTI, had in 2012
sought Pawar’s I-T returns. Pawar, who is the nephew of NCP chief Sharad Pawar,
was the deputy CM during that period.
Gandhi had
reasoned: “There is a larger public interest in disclosing this information to
compare his (Pawar’s) affidavit given to the Election Commission with his
Income Tax returns.”
Since the
information pertained to a third party, the public information officer in the
Income Tax department wrote to Pawar, seeking his consent but the politician
reportedly opposed the disclosure.
Gandhi then
moved the Bombay HC. He contended that the information, which cannot be denied
to the Parliament or the State Legislature, cannot be denied to a citizen.
In June this
year, the HC junked his plea, citing the Supreme Court decisions that IT
returns constitute personal information. About the disclosure before Parliament
and State Legislature, the HC said they have their own rules of business and no
parallel can be drawn.
.JPG)
.JPG)
