No Maintenance Case Pending: CIC Rejects Husband’s Plea for Disclosure of Wife’s Income Records [Read Order]
In the absence of any pending maintenance litigation, the CIC held that no grounds existed for directing disclosure and disposed of the appeal accordingly.
The Central Information Commission (CIC) has dismissed a husband’s appeal seeking disclosure of his wife’s income tax details under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, ruling that no maintenance proceedings are pending that could justify such disclosure.
Devendrakumar Ankushrao Surekar filed an RTI application in November 2023 requesting details of his wife Anjali Petekar’s net and gross income for the assessment years 2020-21 to 2022-23.
The Income Tax Department rejected the request citing Section 8(1)(j) of the RTI Act, as the information constituted “personal information” of a third party.
Anjali Petekar had also strongly objected to the disclosure, stating that she had faced harassment from the applicant and that revealing her financial records would endanger her privacy and safety.
The First Appellate Authority upheld the denial, noting that income tax returns and related details are considered “personal information” exempt from disclosure under Supreme Court rulings in Subhash Chandra Agarwal, Canara Bank v. C.S. Shyam, and Girish Ramchandra Deshpande.
The FAA further observed that while courts have directed disclosure of income details in certain cases involving pending matrimonial disputes or maintenance proceedings, no such case was pending in this matter.
During the hearing before the CIC, the husband argued that the information was required for ongoing litigation. However, the Commission found that the wife’s application for interim maintenance under a Domestic Violence petition had already been dismissed, and no independent maintenance case under Section 125 CrPC was pending.
The Commission noted that disclosure of income tax details may be allowed only in cases where maintenance proceedings are actively before a judicial forum.
Information Commissioner Vinod Kumar Tiwari, while dismissing the appeal, observed that in the absence of any pending maintenance litigation, the CIC held that no grounds existed for directing disclosure and disposed of the appeal accordingly.
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