Disclosure of personal information under the RTI
Disclosure of personal information under the RTI Act, 2005 – Information about the complaints made against an officer and action by Government amounting to personal information
Subject: Disclosure of personal information under the RTI Act, 2005.
“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 apression ‘persona? 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 Supreme Court further held that such information  could be disclosed only if it would serve a larger public interest.
Date of hearing | : | 26/06/2013 |
Date of decision | : | 26/06/2013 |
Name of the Appellant | : | Sh. Manoj Arya,
(RTI Activists and Social Worker) 67, Sec- 12, CPWD Flats, R K Puram, New Delhi -110022 |
Name of the Public Authority | : | Central Public Information Officer, Cabinet Secretariat, (Vigilance & Complaint Cell), 2nd Floor, Sardar Patel Bhawan, New Delhi -110001 |
4.  We have carefully gone through the contents of the RTI application and  the order of the Appellate Authority. We have also considered the submissions  of both the respondent and the third party in the case. The entire information  sought by the Appellant revolves around the complaints made against an office  of the government and any possible action the authorities might have taken on  those complaints. The Appellate Authority was very right in deciding that this  entire class of information was qualified as personal information within the –  meaning of the provisions of Section 8 (i) (1) of the RTI Act. ‘In this connection, it  is very pertinent to bite the decision of the Supreme Court of India in the SLP(C)  No. 27734 of 2012 (Girish R Deshpande vs GIG and others) in which it has held  that 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 Supreme Court  further held that such information could be disclosed only if it would serve a  larger public interest.
The information sought by the Appellant in this case is  about some complaints made against a government official and any possible  action the authorities might have taken on thosecomplaints. It is, thus, clearly  the kind of information which is envisaged in the above SupremeCourt order.  Therefore, the information is completely exempted from disclosure under the  provisions of the RTI Act which both the CPIO and the Appellate Authority have rightly cited in their respective orders.
Download DOPT Office Memorandum No. 11/2/2013-IR (Pt.)Â dated 14.08.2013