Saturday, April 10, 2021

Can’t reveal info of customers, recall RTI order, banks tell SC

Times of India: New Delhi: Saturday, 10 April 2021.
Nearly six years after the Supreme Court ruled that RBI had to reveal information about functioning of banks under the RTI Act, major banks, including SBI and HDFC, on Friday urged the court to recall its order as they cannot reveal confidential information of account holders who may sue them for putting such details in public domain.
The SC had in 2015 directed that RBI can’t refuse to reveal information under the transparency law on financial health of banks under the pretext of ‘fiduciary relations’ with financial institutions and had held that the regulator was supposed to “uphold public interest and not the interest of banks”. Another round of litigation was initiated after RBI didn’t comply with the SC order and the court issued contempt notice. The proceedings were wound up in 2019 with RBI being given the last opportunity to comply to disclose its Annual Financial Inspection report of banks.
With RBI asking the banks to provide information to be disclosed under the RTI Act, third round of litigations has started with all major banks filing fresh applications and petitions seeking quashing or recall of earlier direction. Banks such as SBI, PNB, HDFC, Bank of India, Bank of Baroda made a pitch for re-examining the issue. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta with advocates Harish Salve and Mukul Rohatgi contended before a bench of Justices L Nageswara Rao and Vineet Saran the banking industry could be affected and the SC order might be misused for corporate rivalry. They said only RBI was heard by the SC and the banks were not parties in the litigation.