Tribunal Member’s Corruption Charges Info Can Be Disclosed Under RTI

R. K. Jain vs. UOI (Delhi High Court)

 

Certain complaints qua corruption were made against Ms. Jyoti Balasundaram, Member/CESTAT. After examining this complaint, the President of CESTAT made certain adverse entries in the ACR of the said Member. On the basis of the said ACR, the Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance, opened a file with the subject “follow up action on the integrity in the ACR for the year 2000-01 in respect of Ms. Jyoti Balasundaram, Member (Tech), CESTAT.” Ultimately, this file was closed without taking any proper action. The appellant filed a RTI application seeking inspection of the file & copies of the Note Sheets and correspondence. This was rejected by the CIC on the ground that the issue relating to integrity was a part of the ACR & ACR grades could not be disclosed to third-parties except under exceptional circumstances. The Single Judge held that the information sought was “third party information” and so the authorities had to consider whether the third party’s “privacy” defence could be overruled in the public interest or not. On second appeal, HELD: