Girish Ramchandra Deshpande v. Central Information Commissioner

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA

CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION

CIVIL APPEAL NO. 10044 OF 2010

CENTRAL PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICER,

SUPREME COURT OF INDIA ….. APPELLANT(S)

VERSUS

SUBHASH CHANDRA AGARWAL ….. RESPONDENT(S)

W I T H

CIVIL APPEAL NO. 10045 OF 2010

A N D

CIVIL APPEAL NO. 2683 OF 2010

J U D G M E N T

SANJIV KHANNA, J.

54. In Girish Ramchandra Deshpande v. Central Information 

Commissioner and Others34

, the applicant had sought copies of 

all memos, show-cause notices and censure/punishment awarded 

to a Government employee from his employer and also details of 

his movable/immovable properties, details of investment, loan and 

borrowings from financial institutions, details of gifts accepted by 

the employee from his family members and relatives at the time of 

the marriage of his son. In this context, it was observed:

“12. We are in agreement with the CIC and the courts 

below that the details called for by the petitioner i.e. 

copies of all memos issued to the third respondent, 

show-cause notices and orders of censure/punishment, 

etc. are qualified to be personal information as defined 

in clause (j) of Section 8(1) of the RTI Act. The 

performance of an employee/officer in an organisation 

is primarily a matter between the employee and the 

employer and normally those aspects are governed by 

the service rules which fall under the expression 

“personal information”, the disclosure of which has no 

relationship to any public activity or public interest. On 

the other hand, the disclosure of which would cause 

unwarranted invasion of privacy of that individual. Of 

course, in a given case, if the Central Public 

Information Officer or the State Public Information 

Officer or the appellate authority is satisfied that the 

larger public interest justifies the disclosure of such 

information, appropriate orders could be passed but 

the petitioner cannot claim those details as a matter of 

right.

13. The details disclosed by a person in his income tax 

returns are “personal information” which stand 

34 (2013) 1 SCC 212

Civil Appeal No. 10044 of 2010 & Ors. Page 65 of 108

exempted from disclosure under clause (j) of Section 

8(1) of the RTI Act, unless involves a larger public 

interest and the Central Public Information Officer or 

the State Public Information Officer or the appellate 

authority is satisfied that the larger public interest 

justifies the disclosure of such information.”

(emphasis supplied