Real
Time News: New Delhi: Monday, 08 February 2016.
The Chief
Information Commissioner the highest authority under India’s Right to
Information law has ruled that the bills submitted by a government official for
getting travel allowance are not covered under privacy safeguards.
Government
officials are allowed to claim TA or travel allowance in lieu of expenses
incurred while traveling on official business or for approved holidays under
‘leave travel allowance’.
In case that
came up before the CIC, a person by the name of Sanjeev Kapoor from Jaipur
filed a request for all the travel bills submitted by A Chidambaram, General
Manager in charge of Human Resources at NTPC Ltd, a state-owned power company.
The request
covered a period of over two years and was rejected by NTPC on the ground that
it would invade the privacy of the individual, and also that it would put
unnecessary pressure on the company to collect and forward the records.
According to
the RTI, no one needs to divulge any information “which relates to personal
information the disclosure of which has not relationship to any public activity
or interest, or which would cause unwarranted invasion of the privacy of the
individual” subject to certain conditions.
The CIC
rejected the privacy argument and ruled that information relating to travel
details of a public servant is not exempted per se.
However, the
commissioner found some merit in the company’s argument that it would be too
onerous to collect and forward all the details for the entire period and
modified the request.
“The CPIO (of
NTPC) is directed to divulge the information sought for any 3 months only. The
Appellant shall refocus his query w.r.t. time period and inform the CPIO
regarding same who in turn, shall furnish the information free of cost within 4
weeks,” it ruled.
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