The Central Information Commission in a case relating to Right to Information(RTI) application filed to know information of estranged husband, directed the CPIO to provide generic details of net taxable income /gross income of husband except other personal details.
Shalini Goswami, the Appellant filed an RTI application for providing certified copies of Income Tax Returns for 2020- 21 and 2021-22 of Shri Somesh Pancholi. The Central Public Information Officer (CPIO), forwarded the RTI Application to the CPIO for providing information directly to the applicant under the provisions of RTI Act, 2005.
The CPIO furnished stated that the information sought by the applicant is personal information of the third party. In this regard, the consent of Sh. Somesh Pancholi has been obtained and he has refused to give any information relating to him. As per section 8&9 of the Right to Information Act, information available in form of Income tax Returns sought by the applicant cannot be provided to third person.
Being dissatisfied, the appellant filed a First Appeal wherein upheld the reply of the CPIO. The appellant approached the Commission with the instant Second Appeal.
The Appellant stated that she has sought the income related details of her estranged husband to corroborate evidence in a maintenance case filed by her against her which is pending before the Court of law; however, she is aggrieved with the fact that the information was wrongly denied by the CPIO under the garb of Section 8(1)(j) of RTI Act.
She urged the Commission for relief to be granted in the matter. The CPIO submitted that since the information sought by the Appellant pertains to the personal information of the third party, it was denied to him by invoking Section 8(1)(j) of RTI Act.
It was observed that the information sought for in the RTI Application pertains to the personal information of a third party and stands duly exempted under Section 8(1)(j) of the RTI Act. The Supreme Court in the matter of Central Public Information Officer, Supreme Court of India Vs. Subhash Chandra Agarwal wherein the import of “personal information” envisaged under Section 8(1)(j) of RTI Act has been exemplified.
The Commission comprising of Saroj Punhani directed the CPIO to provide the “generic details of the net taxable income/gross income” of the estranged husband for the specified time period as contained in the RTI Application to the Appellant free of cost within 15 days from the date of receipt of this order without divulging the ITR records of concerned third party.
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