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.