Personal information of a woman cannot be disclosed even to her husband under RTI

Central Information Commission (CIC): CIC has observed that the RTI Act did not give any specific or special exemption to share personal information with the spouses; hence information regarding salary details of a woman cannot be given by a public authority even to her husband under the Right to Information Act as it is personal information. CIC was hearing an appeal filed by a husband seeking information regarding the salary details of his wife. The court held that amount of Salary and the details of pay-scale of a public servant can be part of voluntarily disclosable information under Section 4(1)(b), whereas deductions, personal loans, details of net or gross salary  paid  for a  particular  month, or  seeking  a salary  slip  (payment voucher) and residential addresses are not disclosable, unless larger public interest is involved. If an RTI application is filed for that information, the larger public interest has to be examined by the Public Authorities. While rejecting the plea of the husband, CIC noted that when couples are entangled in legal disputes such as marital claims or cruelty charges, the privacy of individual spouse assumes importance in the context of demand for information and when the spouse does not consent to give information, a citizen, even if a spouse, has no right to information about deductions and expenditure from salary, as that would amount to personal information unless it is in larger public interest. The Commission also cautioned the PIO in the case to be careful in future in disclosing personal information of the ‘third party’. (Dr. Dheeraj Kapoor v. Directorate of Health Services, 2014 SCC OnLine CIC 4526, decided on October 31, 2014)