Friday, March 10, 2017

Information on consumer amenities must be given under RTI: CIC

Times of India‎‎: Chennai: Friday, March 10, 2017.
Data on the number of toilets, water supply, electricity and number of counters provided for transactions of receipts and withdrawals in a bank branch cannot be denied under the Right to Information Act.
This is the gist of a ruling by the Central Information Commission (CIC) recently, in response to an RTI petition filed by Chennai-based consumer activist, T Sadagopan, who, in 2015 had filed an RTI petition with the Avadi branch of Bank of India (BoI).
Sadagopan also sought information on the number of bank staff and officers, the space provided to them, whether the bank was functioning on the first and ground floors.
He asked if there were any arrears and the reasons, if there were. The bank had declined to submit the infor mation, citing it s "personal information relating to a third party" under Section 8(1) (j) of the act.
Information commissioner Sharat Sabharwal, in the order dated January 27, 2017, took strong objection to this, stating that information sought related to the premises and functioning of the branch and cannot be regarded as personal. During the hearing, no case was made by the respondents for denial of information.