The court held that the information on filing sales tax returns were "private" in nature and cannot be spared under the transparency law.
Irked over "revengeful" litigation pursued by a man against his brother, the Delhi High Court today imposed a fine of Rs50,000 on him, holding that the information on filing sales tax returns, sought by him, were "private" in nature and cannot be spared under the transparency law.
"When we examine the present case, we come to an opinion that the information on filing of sales tax returns of a person are duly protected under the Right to Information Act and has rightly been not provided," a bench of Acting Chief Justice AK Sikri and Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw said.
"The filing of the present appeal against the order of the single-judge bench of this court, which had upheld the order of the Central Information Commission (CIC), was abuse of the process of law. We impose a fine of Rs50,000 on petitioner (Ashok Kumar Goel). The fine would be deposited with the Delhi Legal Services Authority," it said.
The bench also made it clear that the fine would be in addition to the cost of Rs25,000 imposed earlier on Goel by the single judge bench of the court.
"I am sorry. I will not even allow you to withdraw your petition. You are trying to settle a personal score with your brother that too through the RTI. These are confidential and private information and hence, you cannot be allowed to abuse the process of law. We are passing an order and will impose a cost of Rs50,000 on you," Justice Sikri said.
Detailing the sequence of events, the court said the Public Information Officer of Sales Tax department denied the information under the RTI to Ashok Kumar Goel about the sales tax returns filed by his brother Premchand Goel.
The decision was upheld by the CPIO, the CIC and the single judge bench and the division bench of the high court.
The court said the purpose of the RTI was not to enable a person take "undue" advantage of the law to settle personal scores.
"We cannot allow that such information be provided under the RTI. The provisions of the Sales Tax Act and the RTI make it very clear that information about the sales tax returns are "private" in nature and cannot be provided unless a larger public interest was involved," it said.
Even the officials of the Sales Tax department can be punished and jailed for leaking such information and hence, the petition required to be dismissed, it said.
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