Homebuyer Resolution Professional Holds Claim Information, Not Regulator: IBBI dismisses RTI

The First Appellate Authority of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India ( IBBI ) has dismissed an appeal filed by a homebuyer and upheld the denial of information regarding his claim in the CIRP of Ansal Properties and Infrastructure Limited.

The appellant, Meraj Beg, had sought detailed information about his claim, including its status, acknowledgements, and related communications, from the IBBI. He argued that as the regulator and supervisor of the insolvency process, the IBBI must possess all relevant documents. The Central Public Information Officer (CPIO) of IBBI had replied that the information sought was not available with the Board.

The Appellant had sought the following information in relation to his claim submitted as a financial creditor (homebuyer) in the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP) of Ansal Properties and Infrastructure Limited.

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The CPIO Respondent has, inter-alia, stated that the information sought by the Appellant is not available with the Board. Aggrieved with the same, the Appellant has filed the present Appeal stating that the CPIO has wrongly denied the information sought since the Board is the supervisor of CIR process and accordingly, possesses all documents pertaining to them.

The responses of the Respondent and the Appeals and find that the matter can be decided based on the material available on record. In terms of section 2(f) of the RTI Act ‘information’ means “any material in any form, including records, documents, memos e-mails, opinions, advices, press releases, circulars, orders, logbooks, contracts, reports, papers, samples, models, data material held in any electronic form and information relating to any private body which can be accessed by a public authority under any other law for the time being in force.”

It is pertinent to note that the Appellant’s “right to information’ flows from section 3 of the RTI Act and the said right is subject to other provisions of the Act. Section 2(j) of the RTI Act defines the “right to information” in term of information accessible under the Act which is held by or is under the control of a public authority. Thus, if the public authority holds any information in the form of data, statistics, abstracts, etc. an applicant can have access to the same under the RTI Act subject to exemptions under section 8.

Any resolution plan (interim/final) that may impact the processing or payment related to this claim. The information is exempted under Section 8 (d) of the RTI Act, since the resolution plans by PRAs are received by the RP in commercial confidence, and the disclosure of the same would harm the competitive position of the PRA.

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The First Appellate Authority, Kulwant Singh, held that the right to information under the RTI Act is limited to material already held by or under the control of the public authority, and the CPIO is not obligated to create new information.

The Authority clarified that the day-to-day information sought by the appellant such as claim acknowledgements, status updates, and communications from the Resolution Professional (RP) is mandated to be maintained by the RP under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), not the IBBI. It directed the appellant to approach the RP directly for this information.

For the list of creditors, the Authority noted that this information is already publicly accessible on the IBBI's website and provided the specific link. Crucially, the Authority upheld the denial of the resolution plan, stating it is exempt under Section 8(d) of the RTI Act as it contains commercial details, the disclosure of which could harm the competitive position of the prospective resolution applicant.

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