Central Information Commission (CIC) : The appellant filed RTI application seeking to know the details regarding his account which was frozen by Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) without giving any prior notice to the appellant for the same. Appellant further questioned about the time required to unfreeze his account due to financial difficulty faced by him. Appellant also desired to know the name of the EPFO official dealing with appellant’s PF account and some other details regarding the date of transfer of his money and the name of the person in whose account it has been transferred along with his address and account number. According to the appellant he was just informed about the fraudulent preliminary inquiry being carried out by the EPFO. Relying on the above information appellant also asked for any inquiry report or action taken by EPFO which was not provided for the reason that matter is under investigation.
The Central Information Commission according to the above facts directed the respondent to provide a report and explanation to the appellants of his complaint and defreezing of appellant’s account within 21 days from the date of the order. Taking a serious note of the scandal, the quantum, width and depth of which is yet to be understood, the Court observed that the respondent authority has a duty to secure the hard-earned money of the workers in the PF accounts as well as inform them about PF misappropriation scandal and also provide a report of action taken within two months. [Sandeep Tanwar v. PIO, EPFO, 2017 SCC OnLine CIC 590, decided on 12.05.2017]