CIC wants Kejriwal's presence in RTI matter related to his service books
14 Jan 2018 6:09 PM GMT
New Delhi: The CIC has directed Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to appear before it in a matter pertaining to an RTI applicant seeking information related to his service records as an Indian Revenue Service officer and an NGO he ran.
Information Commissioner Bimal Julka ordered that Kejriwal will either have to present himself or his authorised representative to argue whether information sought by Ketan Modi of Mumbai from the Income Tax department should be disclosed or not.
Modi has sought to know details of Kejriwal as an IRS officer – salary, leaves, absence from service, tax evasion cases detected by him, permission to float an NGO, departmental action against him, if any.
The I-T department told him that the information sought pertains to "third party", i.e Kejriwal, which can be disclosed only after taking his consent as per the provisions of Section 11 of the RTI Act.
The section allows a central public information officer to take views of the party about whom the information has been sought through an RTI application.
However, the act allows disclosure of information even after lack of consent if the public interest in disclosure outweighs in importance any possible harm or injury to the interests of such third party.
The I-T department said Kejriwal's views were
sought but there was no response from him which means there was no consent for the disclosure of the information sought by Modi.
It said some information was not available with the department handling the case.
"No attempt was made to transfer the application to the relevant section/division handling the specific matter and no satisfactory reply could be furnished in this regard," Julka noted.AGENCIES
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