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2015 (7) TMI 375 - HC - Indian LawsScope of RTI - seeking Income Tax Returns and balance sheets of others of elected representatives - right to privacy - RTI application requesting certain information and more particularly the Income Tax Returns and balance sheets of the Respondent No.3 herein for the preceding three years - The CPIO of the Income Tax Department thereafter by her order dated 212013 denied the said information sought by the Petitioner. It was observed in the said order that the information sought for has no relationship to any public activity or interest and therefore does not qualify in view of the provisions of Section 8(1)(j) of the said Act. Held that:- Since the right to privacy has been recognized as a fundamental right to which a citizen is entitled to, therefore, unless the condition mentioned in Section 8(1)(j) is satisfied, the information cannot be provided. Hence the burden on the Applicant is much more onerous than may be a routine case. - In the instant case, the said burden cannot said to have been discharged by the Petitioner. There is a basic fallacy in the contention raised on behalf of the Petitioner. The Petitioner wants to proceed on the hypothesis that the information sought by him cannot be denied to the Parliament. In so far as the Parliament is concerned, the Parliament has its own rules of business and it therefore cannot be presumed that the information in respect of the Income Tax Returns of a Member of Legislature would be sought. The same would undoubtedly be in the discretion of the Honourable Speaker. In the said context, it is also relevant to refer to Section 75A of the Representation of the People Act under which every elected candidate for a House of Parliament has to furnish information relating to the movable and immovable property, his liabilities to any public financial institution, his liabilities to the Central Government or the State Government to the Chairman of the Council of States or the Speaker of the House of the People i.e. Loksabha or the Chairman of the Council of the State i.e. Rajyasabha. Hence there are adequate provisions in the Representation of the People Act under which the information sought is to be provided to the Parliament to the extent mentioned in the said provisions and therefore reliance cannot be placed on the proviso to Section 8(1)(j) to contend that the exemption provided in the said Section would not operate. RTI application was rightly rejected
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