The Supreme Court order the Reserve Bank of India to withdraw its “Disclosure Policy” that made certain information exempt from disclosure under the Right to Information (RTI) Act.
The Apex Court Bench comprising of Justice Nageswara Rao and Justice MR Shah was delivering the Judgment in a contempt petition filed by RTI activist Subhash Chandra Agrawal against Reserve Bank of India (RBI) alleging willful disobedience to the specific directions issued by the court in Reserve Bank of India Vs Jayantilal N Mistry and others.
The Apex Court said that even though it could have taken RBI’s violation of its 2015 order seriously, it would give one last opportunity to the banking regulator. The Court said,
“Though we could have taken a serious view of the Respondents continuing to violate the directions issued by this Court, we give them a last opportunity to withdraw the disclosure policy insofar as it contains exemptions which are contrary to the directions issued by this Court. The Respondents are dutybound to furnish all information relating to inspection reports and other material apart from the material that was exempted in para 77 of the judgment. Any further violation shall be viewed seriously by this Court.”
The Supreme Court rejected the grounds for denial of information as baseless and directed the RBI to disclose information sought by the RTI applicant in that case.
source: LiveLaw, Barandbench