Central Information Commission
Vishal Gupta vs Chief Commissioner Of Income Tax (Cca), ... on 5 June, 2023
Author: Saroj Punhani
Bench: Saroj Punhani
के ीय सूचना आयोग
Central Information Commission
बाबागंगनाथमाग, मुिनरका
Baba Gangnath Marg, Munirka
नई द ली, New Delhi - 110067
File No : CIC/CCITD/A/2022/148426
Vishal Gupta ......अपीलकता/Appellant
VERSUS
बनाम
CPIO,
Office of the Income Tax Officer,
Ward-30(1), RTI Cell, 12th Floor,
E-2 Block, Dr S. P. Mukherjee
Civic Centre, J.L. Nehru Marg,
New Delhi-110002. .... ितवादीगण /Respondent
Date of Hearing : 01/06/2023
Date of Decision : 01/06/2023
INFORMATION COMMISSIONER : Saroj Punhani
Relevant facts emerging from appeal:
RTI application filed on : 20/04/2022
CPIO replied on : 17/06/2022
First appeal filed on : 30/06/2022
First Appellate Authority order : 30/07/2022
Second Appeal dated : 05/10/2022
Information sought:
The Appellant filed an RTI application dated 20.04.2022 seeking the following information:1
"Require information if IT return was files for PAN BBRPS3890P in: FY- 2018-2019 FY- 2019-2020 FY- 2020-2021 FY- 2021-2022."
The CPIO furnished a reply to the appellant on 17.06.2022 stating as under:
"The information sought by the applicant is a third party information and personal information cannot be provided in view of the Hon'ble Supreme Court order dated 3/10/2012 in SLP (Civil) No. 27734 of 2012 in the case of Girish Ramchandra Deshpande Vs CIC & others vide which it has been held that details disclosed by a person in Income Tax Return are "Personal Information" which stand exempted from disclosure u/s 8(1)(j) of RTI Act, 2005 unless larger public interest is involved. The information sought pertains to the personal details of the third party and cannot be provided."
Being dissatisfied, the appellant filed a First Appeal dated 30.06.2022. FAA's order, dated 30.07.2022, held as under:
"It is observed that the information being sought is personal information relating to various investigation/inquiries/proceedings w.r.t. Ms. Deepti Sharma. Personal information is exempted from disclosure under clause(j) of Section 8(1) of the RTI Act. 2005 unless it involves a larger public interest and the CPIO/SPIO or the appellate authority is satisfied that the larger public interest justified the disclosure of such information. In the present appeal, the appellant has failed to satisfy that any larger public interest would be served on disclosure of such information. On perusal of the order dated 17.06.2022 passed by the CPIO, ITO Ward 30(1). New Delhi it is noticed that the CPIO, while denying disclosure of third-party information to the applicant has not sought prior consent of the third party, Ms. Deepti Sharma. The CPIO is therefore directed to seek consent of the third party within 15 days and accordingly provide a fresh reply to the applicant through a speaking order in accordance with the provision of RTI Act, 2005."
Feeling aggrieved and dissatisfied, the appellant approached the Commission with the instant Second Appeal.
Relevant Facts emerging during Hearing:
The following were present:-2
Appellant: Present through video-conference.
Respondent: Narendra Kumar Pareek, ITO Ward 30(1) & CPIO present through audio-conference.
At the outset, the Commission apprised the Appellant that the bench has come across multiple cases where the appellant has sought for the income details of his estranged wife in order to corroborate evidence in maintenance cases which are sub-judice and the Commission allows for disclosure of generic incomes details to the applicants in the spirit of RTI Act. In this regard, upon a query from the Commission regarding any matrimonial dispute or a pending maintenance case of the Appellant, he feebly responded positively; however, he was unable to substantiate the same with any specific documents annexed with the case file. He, however invited attention of the bench to the fact that the matter is pending before the Ld. District Court and therefore, the information is sought as his estranged wife has filed a Court case under Domestic Violence Act and also with the claim for interim maintenance before the Civil Court. He added that even his wife had not given any correct information related to her income before the Ld. District Court.
The CPIO reiterated his denial of information under Section 8(1)(j) of RTI Act.
Decision:
In furtherance of hearing proceedings, the Commission based on a perusal of the facts on record observes that in the grounds of the Second Appeal as well as during the hearing, the plain argument against the information sought for by him is not personal in nature. Similarly, no substantial argument or relevant argument has been placed on record by the Appellant suggesting that he has a case of maintenance pending in the family court against the said third party or he seeks to pursue a case like of such nature. Pertinently so, upon Commission's instance during the hearing, the admission of the Appellant to a pending maintenance case was rather feeble and lacked conviction.
The above observation is relevant to mention as this bench has dealt with cases bearing the factual matrix of a spouse seeking income tax details of another in pursuit of a matrimonial dispute and the stance that had been maintained by it so far is that the information sought for in the RTI Application pertains to the personal information of a third party and stands duly exempted under Section 3 8(1)(j) of the RTI Act. In this regard, the attention of the Appellant(s) has been drawn towards a judgment of the Hon'ble Supreme Court in the matter of Central Public Information Officer, Supreme Court of India Vs. Subhash Chandra Agarwal in Civil Appeal No. 10044 of 2010 with Civil Appeal No. 10045 of 2010 and Civil Appeal No. 2683 of 2010 wherein the import of "personal information" envisaged under Section 8(1)(j) of RTI Act has been exemplified in the context of earlier ratios laid down by the same Court in the matter(s) of Canara Bank Vs. C.S. Shyam in Civil Appeal No.22 of 2009; Girish Ramchandra Deshpande vs. Central Information Commissioner & Ors., (2013) 1 SCC 212 and R.K. Jain vs. Union of India & Anr., (2013) 14 SCC 794. The following was thus held:
"59. Reading of the aforesaid judicial precedents, in our opinion, would indicate that personal records, including name, address, physical, mental and psychological status, marks obtained, grades and answer sheets, are all treated as personal information. Similarly, professional records, including qualification, performance, evaluation reports, ACRs, disciplinary proceedings, etc. are all personal information. Medical records, treatment, choice of medicine, list of hospitals and doctors visited, findings recorded, including that of the family members, information relating to assets, liabilities, income tax returns, details of investments, lending and borrowing, etc. are personal information. Such personal information is entitled to protection from unwarranted invasion of privacy and conditional access is available when stipulation of larger public interest is satisfied. This list is indicative and not exhaustive..."
Further, in matters concerning the disputes of a husband and wife, the Commission is guided by a judgment of the Hon'ble Delhi High Court in the matter of Vijay Prakash vs. Union of India (W.P. (C) 803/2009) dated 01.07.2009 wherein the Court observed that in private disputes such as the present one between a husband and wife "...The basic protection afforded by virtue of the exemption (from disclosure) enacted under Section 8(1)(j) cannot be lifted or disturbed.."
Similarly, in the matter of Madhumala B. R. vs. ACIT, Ward 3(3)(1), Bangalore based on the same facts in File No. CIC/CCITB/A/2021/609570, the attention of this bench was invited to the following cases filed by the Income Tax authorities in Bangalore with the Hon'ble High Court of Karnataka against the orders of the Commission wherein "gross income" of the spouse was allowed to be disclosed citing the right of maintenance:
1. Jammula Padma Manjari in W.P. No. 18778 of 2017 (CIC/BS/A/2016/001440-BJ) 4
2. Gulsanober Bano in W.P. No. 34625 of 2019 (CIC/CCITB/A/2017/180340-BJ)
3. Neena Bhatnagar Mani in W.P. No. 7367 of 2020 ( CIC/CCITB/A/2018/106268-BJ)
4. Chhavi Goel Nee Agarwal in W.P. No. 7281 of 2020 ( CIC/CCITB/A/2018/120646-BJ)
5. Devyani Lakher in W.P. No. 7453 of 2020 ( CIC/PNBNK/A/2018/104442)
6. Princy Amit Jain in W.P. No. 11233 of 2020 (CIC/CCITB/A/2018/164565).
Nonetheless, since the averred Court cases are reportedly under an interim stay by the Karnataka High Court and the details of the arguments or further orders are not available on record, this bench has accepted the bar on disclosure thus far only in the Madhumala case.
Per contra, in the recent past this bench has met with the continuing reliance placed by a staggering number of applicants on the decision dated 06.11.2020 of a coordinate bench of the Commission in the Rahmat Bano case, wherein the disclosure of the gross income was allowed to the estranged wife on the ground of sustenance and livelihood of the family. The said decision was premised on the judgments of two High Courts i.e in the matter of Smt. Sunita Jain vs. Pawan Kumar Jain and others W.A. No. 168/2015 and Smt. Sunita Jain vs. Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited and others W.A. No. 170/2015 dated 15.05.2018 by Hon'ble MP High Court as well as Rajesh Ramachandra Kidile vs. Maharashtra SIC and Ors in W.P. No. 1766 of 2016 dated 22.10.2018 by Hon'ble High Court of Bombay (Nagpur Bench). Thus, while making a reference to the ratio laid down in the Apex Court judgement in the Girish Ramachandra (supra) case it was held as under in the Rahmat Bano case:
"However, making a distinction with the said judgment, the Division Bench of the Hon'ble High Court of M.P. in the matter of Smt. Sunita Jain vs. Pawan Kumar Jain and others W.A. No. 168/2015 and Smt. Sunita Jain vs. Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited and others W.A. No. 170/2015 dated 15.05.2018 had in a matter where the information seeker had sought the salary details of her husband from the employer held as under:
"While dealing with the Section 8(1)(j) of the Act, we cannot lose sight of the fact that the appellant and the respondent No.1 are husband and wife and as a wife she is entitled to know what remuneration the respondent No.1 is getting. Present case is distinguishable from the case of Girish Ramchandra Deshpande (supra) and therefore the law laid down by their Lordships in the case of Girish Ramchandra Deshpande (supra) are not applicable in the present case. In view of the foregoing discussion, we allow the appeal and set 5 aside the order passed by the Writ Court in W.P. No.341/2008. Similarly, the W.A. No.170/2015 is also allowed and the impugned order passed in W.P. No.1647/2008 is set aside."
8. Moreover, the Hon'ble High Court of Bombay (Nagpur Bench) in the matter of Rajesh Ramachandra Kidile vs. Maharashtra SIC and Ors in W.P. No. 1766 of 2016 dated 22.10.2018 held as under:
"8. Perusal of this application shows that the salary slips for the period mentioned in the application have been sought for by the Advocate. As rightly submitted by the learned counsel for the petitioner, the salary slips contain such details as deductions made from the salary, remittances made to the Bank by way of loan instalments, remittances made to the Income Tax Authority towards part payment of the Income Tax for the concerned month and other details relating to contributions made to Provident Fund, etc. It is here that the information contained in the salary slips as having the characteristic of personal nature. Any information which discloses, as for example, remittances made to the Income tax Department towards discharge of tax liability or to the Bank towards discharge of loan liability would constitute the personal information and would encroach upon the privacy of the person. Therefore as held by the Hon'ble Apex Court in the case of Girish Ramachandra Deshpande (supra) such an information could not be disclosed under the provisions of the RTI Act. This is all the more so when the information seeker is a person who is totally stranger in blood or marital relationship to the person whose information he wants to lay his hands on. It would have been a different matter, had the information been sought by the wife of the petitioner in order to support her contention in a litigation, which she filed against her husband. In a litigation, where the issue involved is of maintenance of wife, the information relating to the salary details no longer remain confined to the category of personal information concerning both husband and wife, which is available with the husband hence accessible by the wife. But in the present case, as stated earlier, the application has not been filed by the wife.
9. Then, by the application filed under the provisions of the RTI Act, information regarding mere gross salary of the petitioner has not been sought and what have been sought are the details if the salary such as amounts relating to gross salary, take home salary and also all the 6 deductions from the gross salary. It is such nature of the information sought which takes the present case towards the category of exempted information.
10. All these aspects of the matter have not been considered by the authority below and, therefore, I find that its order is patently illegal, not sustainable in the eyes of law."
9. Taking into consideration the aforementioned analysis and the judgments of the Higher Courts, the Commission directs the respondent to inform the appellant about the generic details of the net taxable income/gross income of her husband held and available with the Public Authority for the period 2017- 2018, within a period of 15 working days from the date of receipt of this order. Emphasis Supplied
10. The details/copy of income tax returns and other personal information of third party need not to be disclosed to the appellant except as mentioned at para no. 9 above."
Now, for echoing the above stance in the instant case, due to the peculiarities noted in the factual matrix of this case, the Appellant is advised to provide relevant documents related to the case of matrimonial dispute/maintenance case alleged to be pursued by the averred third party against him to the CPIO. Upon receipt of the said relevant documents to satisfy the cause of action of the Appellant, the CPIO is directed to provide the "generic details of the net taxable income/gross income" of the Appellant's wife for the specified time period as contained in the RTI Application to the Appellant free of cost. A compliance report to this effect shall be sent to the Commission by the CPIO immediately thereafter.
The Appellant is allowed a window of 30 days to provide the relevant documents to the CPIO and in case of non-receipt of the same by the CPIO within the said time period, the case will be treated as closed.
The appeal is disposed of accordingly.
Saroj Punhani (सरोज पुनहािन) Information Commissioner (सूचना आयु ) 7 Authenticated true copy (अिभ मािणत स यािपत ित) (C.A. Joseph) Dy. Registrar 011-26179548/ [email protected] सी. ए. जोसेफ, उप-पंजीयक दनांक / 8