Under the Central Information Commission, I just heard the appeal of an RTI applicant, who sought information related to the salary provided to a person and the disability certificate presented by him. The CPIO objected to giving information on these specific points of response after 57 days.
The wife can ask husband's salary under Right to Information!!
Central Information Commission's ruling came against an appeal after the I-T department held that the information sought by a wife on her husband's income belonged to a third party The CIC further rejected the argument that such information pertained to a third party and said it does not come under the definition of information under RTI. The major decision from the CIC came after it heard an appeal filed by Rahmat Bano of Jodhpur after the IT department held that the information sought by her on her husband's income belonged to a third party.Apart from this time, the CIC earlier while hearing other cases also had said that the wives of government servants have a "right" to know salary particulars of their husbands and these details should also be made public through the RTI Act.
A resident of Akola, for instance, turned to the CIC after the Income Tax Department refused information on the income tax returns filed by her husband, who had deserted her. She wanted to find out his whereabouts through his income tax returns.
The CIC took a view that on humanitarian grounds, generic information from income tax returns should be given.CIC says spouse’s personal information can be shared on the humanitarian ground
Other Terms:- Several CIC orders and court judgments have held that Few phases of the salary of an employee can be revealed under the RTI Act. and also the Commissioner admitted that the salary information of employees in the department is to be revealed. The Commission further stated that opposing any such information, as the information of third parties is illegal and accordingly directed the defendant to provide complete information to the appellant within the next fifteen days.
Amount of Salary and the details of the pay scale of a public servant can be part of voluntarily disclosable information under Section 4(1)(b), whereas deductions, personal loans, details gross salary paid for a particular month or seeking a salary slip and residential addresses are not disclosable unless the larger public interest
is involved. If an RTI Application is filed for that information, the larger public interest has to be examined by the PIOs, Appellate Authorities, and the Commission.
The information about the salary which is part of the ‘scale’ is public. The information for instance, about the deduction of installment for a personal loan, payments or savings made by public servants, expenditure details, etc is his personal information. Whether he/she wants to give that private information to other people or not is the personal discretion of the people. Thus it becomes third-party information as far as the people are concerned. The Commission holds that the information about the salary and pay scale would serve the interest and purpose of maintenance rights of the people. Especially, when the people are seeking salary information from the public authority where he/ she is working as a public servant, the public authority must render required assistance by providing necessary information to secure justice.
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Ram Saxena September 09, 2020
Please provide me an order where joining report and electric charge can be asked in rti