Times of India;Tuesday 3 May 2011,
CHENNAI: Objections raised recently by political personalities to reveal their income tax returns under the Right To Information (RTI) Act have raised the question of public interest versus privacy. Activists say that RTI is a tool to ensure that people's representatives don't have disproportionate wealth. They ask why politicians object to the disclosure of income tax returns when they reveal their assets to the Election Commission at the time of elections. Politicians and officials argue that requests to disclose tax returns are an invasion of privacy. They say that these details could be misused.
Activists, for their part, seek a national-level debate on the issue as politicians hold tightly to the privacy argument. Recent objections to the disclosure of income tax returns have come from A Raja's wife Parameswari, Congress MLA Gnanasekaran and Viduthalai Siruthaigal Katchi. They join a list that includes chief minister Karunanidhi, Kanimozhi, A Raja, Dayanidhi Maran and Union home minister P Chidambaram.
While public information officers of the income tax department have generally upheld the idea of the tax return being a confidential document, the central information commission (CIC) has, in some appeals, released the returns citing different reasons. Observers feel that it is now up to the supreme court to bring clarity to the issue and interpret the law and give a final ruling. The court not only needs to decide if the tax returns are confidential or not, it also has to consider whether persons holding a public office should be treated differently from private citizens -- in the matter of disclosing IT returns.
In one appeal before the CIC, the income tax department argued that the department holds the returns in a "fiduciary capacity," which is a legal relationship of confidence, and therefore the returns are confidential. But the CIC ruled that the returns are filed as a legal obligation and therefore are not confidential.
In all cases of requests for release of returns, the income tax department has accepted the objections and rejected the RTI applications saying that there was no public interest involved in the disclosure of their IT-returns.
RTI activists are agitated over the income-tax department's denial. "We mention in the RTI application the information we seek, and the RTI Act says we need not give any reason. In that case, how can a public information officer come to a conclusion that there is no public interest involved in the request?" asked V Gopalakrishnan, the activist who had filed the RTI applications.
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