Why RTI won't apply to lunch hosted by Sonia Gandhi

NDTV: New Delhi: Friday, August 02, 2013.

The Central Information Commission today held that the details of a lunch hosted by Congress president Sonia Gandhi last year can be withheld from disclosure as no ministry or government department had paid any bills for it.

The commission gave this order while disposing off an RTI appeal filed by an applicant named Aseem Takyar who sought information about the lunch organised by Mrs Gandhi for UPA allies on July 18 last year, ahead of the presidential election.

The lunch was organised at the Ashoka Hotel in the national capital. The hotel had refused to disclose the details saying the information was of the nature of commercial confidence and disclosing payments made by its guests would compromise its market position.

The hotel said it is a commercial enterprise and has to maintain and protect the commercial confidence of its customers if it has to be successful in the market.

It cannot be expected to disclose the bills of various clients and guests as the payments were not made by any government department or ministry.

"In any case, in view of the fact that the respondent has very categorically mentioned that the above lunch was not paid for by any government ministry or department, therefore there is no further information to be disclosed. The appeal is disposed off accordingly," Chief Information Commissioner Satyananda Mishra said.