Rising Kashmir: New Delhi:
Wednesday, April 17, 2013.
The Supreme
Court today rejected a plea for disclosure of the annual confidential reports
(ACRs) of public servants under the RTI Act.
A bench of
justices G S Singhvi and S J Mukhopadhaya upheld the Delhi High Court's order
that the annual performance appraisal reports (APARs), previously known as
ACRs, of a public servant were personal information and exempted from
disclosure under the transparency law.
"We find
no reason to interfere with the impugned judgement passed by the division bench
whereby the order passed by the learned Single Judge of the High Court was
affirmed," the bench said.
The court
passed the order on an appeal filed by transparency activist R K Jain's plea
challenging High Court's order.
Jain had
sought setting aside of HC order and issuance of a direction to the Centre to
disclose alleged "adverse" remarks in ACR of Jyoti Balasundaram, a
member of Customs, Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal (CESTAT) in
2000-01. Jain had
earlier approached the CESTAT's Central Principal Information
Officer, who had refused to "divulge any information on the ground that it
was exempted under Section 8(1)(i) of the RTI Act". The CIC had also
declined the plea on the same ground.
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