[HumJanenge] Delhi High Court fines man for seeking private info under RTI

HC fines man Rs50,000 for seeking private info under RTI

Irked over "revengeful" litigation pursued by a man against his
brother, the Delhi High Court today imposed a fine of Rs50,000 on him,
holding that the information on filing sales tax returns, sought by
him, were "private" in nature and cannot be spared under the
transparency law.

"When we examine the present case, we come to an opinion that the
information on filing of sales tax returns of a person are duly
protected under the Right to Information Act and has rightly been not
provided," a bench of Acting Chief Justice AK Sikri and Justice Rajiv
Sahai Endlaw said.

"The filing of the present appeal against the order of the
single-judge bench of this court, which had upheld the order of the
Central Information Commission (CIC), was abuse of the process of law.
We impose a fine of Rs50,000 on petitioner (Ashok Kumar Goel). The
fine would be deposited with the Delhi Legal Services Authority," it
said.

The bench also made it clear that the fine would be in addition to the
cost of Rs25,000 imposed earlier on Goel by the single judge bench of
the court.

"I am sorry. I will not even allow you to withdraw your petition. You
are trying to settle a personal score with your brother that too
through the RTI. These are confidential and private information and
hence, you cannot be allowed to abuse the process of law. We are
passing an order and will impose a cost of Rs50,000 on you," Justice
Sikri said.

Detailing the sequence of events, the court said the Public
Information Officer of Sales Tax department denied the information
under the RTI to Ashok Kumar Goel about the sales tax returns filed by
his brother Premchand Goel.

The decision was upheld by the CPIO, the CIC and the single judge
bench and the division bench of the high court.

The court said the purpose of the RTI was not to enable a person take
"undue" advantage of the law to settle personal scores.

"We cannot allow that such information be provided under the RTI. The
provisions of the Sales Tax Act and the RTI make it very clear that
information about the sales tax returns are "private" in nature and
cannot be provided unless a larger public interest was involved," it
said.

Even the officials of the Sales Tax department can be punished and
jailed for leaking such information and hence, the petition required
to be dismissed, it said.

Source : DNA

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