HC asks CIC to take babu's objection into consideration

TNN, Dec 11, 2010,

AHMEDABAD: The Gujarat high court on Friday directed the Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) to take the objection of IAS officer Arvind Agarwal into consideration in an application seeking disclosure of Annual Property Return. The IAS officer had approached the HC against CIC's order for asset disclosure on an application filed by Kapil Dave seeking details of APR of the bureaucrat.

Dave sought details of the APR of all IAS officers in the state for the financial year 2009-10. Principal information officer (PIO) Ashok Dave intimated Agarwal on September 9, 2010 that he would disclose his APR as demanded in the RTI application. This was in the wake of the CIC's directive to PIOs to give written notices to IAS officers whose property return details Dave had sought.

In his reply to the PIO on September 29, Agarwal sought two months' time. In October, Agarwal reiterated that a member of the public does not have legal right even under the RTI laws to seek such information and that the government was not authorised to make the information public.

Later, Agarwal asked the PIO not to disclose any information about his property details without hearing him. He said that furnishing such information would cause "unwarranted invasion of my privacy... there is no public interest that justifies disclosure of such information."

The PIO rejected Dave's RTI query following opposition from Agarwal. Dave then appealed to the CIC which approved the disclosure of the property return.