Live Law : New Delhi: Tuesday,
February 14, 2017.
RTI activist
Subhash Chandra Agrawal has moved a contempt petition in the Supreme Court
against Reserve Bank of India (RBI) alleging willful disobedience to the
specific directions issued by the court in Reserve Bank of India Vs Jayantilal
N Mistry and others.
In Jayantilal
N Mistry case, the Supreme Court had held that the RBI is bound to disclose
information under the RTI Act.The petition moved through advocates Prashant
Bhushan and Pranav Sachdeva said the RBI issued a ‘disclosure policy’ directing
its Public Information Officers (PIOs) to not disclose virtually all
information, even the kind of information directed to be disclosed by the
Supreme Court.
“The said
policy states how RBI headquarter has decided not to disclose information with
regards to applications received under the Right to Information Act 2005, in
clear violation of the judgment of this Hon’ble Court,” the petition stated.
The Supreme
Court in Reserve Bank of India Vs Jayantilal N.Mistry and others had directed
disclosure of information sought for under the RTI Act relating to individual
banks regulated and supervised by the RBI. The central bank had earlier refused
to disclose such information on the grounds of economic interest and holding
such information in fiduciary relationship with these individual banks.
The Supreme
Court rejected the grounds for denial of information as baseless and directed
the RBI to disclose information sought by the RTI applicant in that case. It
was held that the RBI was not in fiduciary relation with these individual
banks, as it did not hold such information in ‘trust’ with such banks. Further,
withholding rather than disclosing of such information would be detrimental to
the economic interest of the nation, it held.