A Govt Officer Lives in Public Glare and Must Be Open to Public Scrutiny: Madras High Court
Information that does not harm the public servant’s career, such as date of joining, promotion details and nature of work, can be disclosed and if any information is to be denied or disclosed, proper reasons for such a decision must be provided, ordered the Madras High Court on 20 December 2024, to a writ petition filed after information failed to be provided under the Right to Information (RTI) Act.
 
Justice CV Karthikeyan further stated, “I find it difficult to accept this reasoning of the state information commission’s order which states that the information requested is exempt under section 8 of the Act as it pertains to the personal information of the public servant.”
 
Justice Karthikeyan emphasised that “A public servant’s service register typically includes details such as the date of joining, transfers undergone, increments granted, earned leave taken, and any punishments imposed during the service period. These details, especially the date of joining and other non-sensitive information, do not necessarily qualify as personal information that must be exempt from disclosure.”
 
He further elaborated, by penning in his order, that “While punishments imposed under certain circumstances might be considered private, as their disclosure could stigmatise the public servant, a person entering public service must accept the responsibility of being subject to public scrutiny. The public has a right to access at least service-related details of a public servant.”
 
RTI applicants M Tamilselvan and T Sangeetha, who later turned petitioners, had initially invoked the RTI Act. They sought information from the district collector of Chennai, about the disproportionate wealth of an assistant engineer in the water reservoir project sub-division in Krishnagiri district of Tamil Nadu, through an RTI application on 1 February 2023. However, the information was not provided.
 
The petitioners had also sought information from the service registry, including the individual’s initial date of joining, details of assets and liabilities in his name and his family members’ names, and other similar information. However, they were informed that the requested information is protected under section 8 of the Act and cannot be disclosed.
 
The petitioners then filed a first appeal under the RTI Act but were denied information. They later filed a second appeal but, once again, no information was provided.
 
The petitioners submitted a request on 13 March 2024, asking for the enforcement of the order. However, it was stated that an order issued on 30 April 2024 denied their request, claiming the information sought was personal and could not be disclosed.
 
Both the RTI applicants filed a petition in the court against the order issued by the state information commissioner (SIC) and appealed in their petition to the HC to direct the government to give them the information they had requested in their application on 1 February 2023.
 
The assistant engineer, who was at the receiving end of the RTI applications, submitted a counter affidavit stating that he had received a letter about disclosing his personal details. However, in his reply on 10 May 2024, he requested that his personal details not be disclosed.
 
Justice Karthikeyan has ordered the entire case to be sent back to the state information commission “for a fresh review” and has given it two months to decide the appeal.
 
(Vinita Deshmukh is consulting editor of Moneylife. She is also the convener of the Pune Metro Jagruti Abhiyaan. She is the recipient of prestigious awards like the Statesman Award for Rural Reporting, which she won twice in 1998 and 2005 and the Chameli Devi Jain Award for outstanding media person for her investigation series on Dow Chemicals. She co-authored the book "To The Last Bullet - The Inspiring Story of A Braveheart - Ashok Kamte" with Vinita Kamte and is the author of "The Mighty Fall".)
 
Comments
balakrishnanr
1 month ago
No. The local government will not hold an investigation in to the said officers' affairs. What a wonder ful world, where attention is diverted to the meaningless
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