CENTRAL INFORMATION COMMISSION (Room No.315, B-Wing, August Kranti Bhawan, Bhikaji Cama Place, New Delhi 110 066) Phone: 011-26181927 Fax: 011-26185088 Prof. M. Sridhar Acharyulu (Madabhushi Sridhar) Central Information Commissioner CIC/BS/C/2015/900142 Kanhaiya Lal v. PIO, ESIC, New Delhi RTI : 08.09.2014 CPIO s Reply : 17.11.2014 FAO : Nil Complaint : 18.03.2015 Hearing : 10.04.2017 Complainant : Absent Public authority : Shri Praveen Kumar Dabas, Asst. Director Shri Mohit Raja, Dy. Director Shri Pankaj Vohra, Dy. Director Decided on : 12.04.2017 FACTS: FINAL ORDER 1. The complainant filed RTI application seeking information about 07 account numbers and company in which this numbers are registered, date and month in which funds were deposited in these accounts, whether these accounts are permanent or not. He also sought to know what would happen if ESIC contribution is not made by an employer etc. The PIO gave information as received from Dy. Director (REV-II) who informed that they have information only on question no. 5, which was provided stating that employer is given show cause notice for non-payment of contribution and 12% interest is imposed on such contribution amount. The complainant approached the Commission. Decision : 2. In response to the RTI request, Shri C.P.Wadhwa, Assistant Director, Revenue Branch II on 03.11.2014 stated that first four points were not related to their office and provided information to fifth point. The complainant received another communication on 15.12.2014 from Shri Sahil Agrawal, Assistant Director, Information Communication Technology Division, who stated that the
information sought pertained to third party and is personal information, thus exempted under Section 8(1)(j) of RTI Act. The information sought is: a) about PF accounts of seven employees, the name of employer company, b) date and amount of contributions deposited in the accounts of above seven employees and c) Whether these accounts are permanent or not. 3. The CPIO could not explain how this information is private or personal or belonging to third party. The Employees Provident Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952, mandates in Section 6 that employer shall pay the contribution. It says: 6. Contributions and matters which may be provided for in Schemes. The contribution which shall be paid by the employer to the Fund shall be ten percent. Of the basic wages, dearness allowance and retaining allowance, if any, for the time being payable to each of the employees whether employed by him directly or by or through a contractor, and the employee s contribution shall be equal to the contribution payable by the employer in respect of him and may, if any employee so desires, be an amount exceeding ten percent of his basic wages, dearness allowance and retaining allowance if any, subject to the condition that the employer shall not be under an obligation to pay any contribution over and above his contribution payable under this section: 4. Ten per cent of basic wages, DA and other allowances need to be contributed by employee and equal amount has to be paid by the employer. This Act is a labour welfare legislation and in the interest of security of the worker in case of providential requirements. The basic wage, DA and other allowances is fixed by official pay revision committee, thus it is in public domain. When the total salary and ten percent PF contribution is known to everyone and also in public domain, denying it as third party information is absolutely wrong and totally against the exemption under s. 8(1)(j) of RTI Act, which says: information which relates to personal information the disclosure of which has not relationship to any public activity or interest, or which would cause unwarranted invasion of the privacy of the individual unless the Central Public Information Officer or the State Public Information Officer or the appellate
authority, as the case may be, is satisfied that the larger public interest justifies the disclosure of such information: Provided that the information, which cannot be denied to the Parliament or a State Legislature shall not be denied to any person. 5. Wages related information of the employees has to be voluntarily disclosed by the public authority under Section 4(1)(b)(x) of RTI Act, 2005 states that: publish within one hundred and twenty days from the enactment of this Act: the monthly remuneration received by each of its officers and employees, including the system of compensation as provided in its regulations. 6. The workers list, their salaries, and PF account the money deposited in the form of contributions by employer and employee as per a statute and a scheme under statute cannot be considered as third party or personal information of the employer or employee. The workers file RTI application only when there is some grievance or complaint regarding the depositing or nondepositing of amount or wrong assessment of contribution, non-payment of interest on delayed crediting of contribution. None of this could be private information of some job holder or employer. The PF account is different from savings bank account of a person. The PF account is exclusively meant for holding contributions by both employer and employee and no other amount gets deposited or withdrawn. Thus the PF account and the account number also cannot be treated as personal information of someone. If a worker or office bearer of workers union wanted to know the details of crediting of amount in the account, to check whether the right of the worker to PF was properly honoured, it relates to public activity and never to private aspects of any individual. The names, father s name of the worker need to be given to identify. Similarly his total monthly salary and ten per cent of PF of that salary amount and co-equal amount from employer, the amount carried forward to next year cannot be considered as private information. In view of the above explanation, in this kind of request, there is no need to invoke Section 11(1) of the RTI Act, 2005 which says: Where a Central Public Information Officer or the State Public Information Officer, as the case may be, intends to disclose any information or record, or part thereof on a request made under this Act, which relates to or has been supplied
by a third party and has been treated as confidential by that third party, the Central Public Information Officer or State Public Information Officer, as the case may be, shall, within five days from the receipt of the request, give a written notice to such third party of the request and of the fact that the Central Public Information Officer or State Public Information Officer, as the case may be, intends to disclose the information or record, or part thereof, and invite the third party to make a submission in writing or orally, regarding whether the information should be disclosed, and such submission of the third party shall be kept in view while taking a decision about disclosure of information: Provided that except in the case of trade or commercial secrets protected by law, disclosure may be allowed if the public interest in disclosure outweighs in importance any possible harm or injury to the interests of such third party. 7. Neither the CPIOs nor the First Appellate Authorities are applying their mind to understand this obvious public nature of information sought about PF accounts and amount deposited therein, and routinely rejecting RTI requests, which amounts to violation of Right to Information Act. 8. For the above reasons, the Commission directs the CPIO to provide all the information to the complainant which has been held back / suppressed till now, within 15 days from the date of the receipt of this order, and directs the CPIO of ESIC Headquarters, New Delhi to circulate this order to all CPIOs of their wings with an instruction not to reject such RTI requests and provide such information as soon as possible, but not beyond 30 days besides putting this order in their official website for general information of workers community of the country. Sd/- Authenticated true copy (M. Sridhar Acharyulu) Central Information Commissioner (Dinesh Kumar) Deputy Registrar Copy of decision given to the parties free of cost.
Addresses of the parties: 1. The CPIO under RTI, ESIC, M/o Labour & Employment, Panchdeep Bhawan, CIG Marg, New Delhi-110002. 2. Shri Kanhaiya Lal, H. No. 19-A, Gali No. 13, Laxmi Vihar, Jain Road, Uttam Nagar, Sought West Delhi, Delhi-110059.