Complaints against Babus - No disclosure under RTI
THE Supreme Court in Girish Ramchandra Deshpande Vs. Central Information Commissioner - held,
"The performance of an employee/Officer in an organisation is primarily a matter between the employee and the employer and normally those aspects are governed by the service rules which fall under the expression 'personal information', the disclosure of which has no relationship to any public activity or public interest. On the other hand, the disclosure of which could cause unwarranted invasion of the privacy of that individual."
The Central Information Commission in one of its recent decisions, followed the Supreme Court judgement and held that information about the complaints made against an officer of the Government and any possible action the authorities might have taken on those complaints, qualifies as personal information within the meaning of provision of section 8 (1) (j) of the RTI Act, 2005.
In this RTI appeal, the appellant had sought the copies of the complaints made against a Government official and the details of the action taken including the copies of the enquiry reports. He had also wanted the copies of the correspondence made between the Cabinet Secretariat and the Ministry of Shipping in respect of the officer in the case.
The CIC held that the information is completely exempted from disclosure under the provisions of the RTI Act
The DOPT has communicated this decision to all the Ministries and Departments of the Government of India.