This article is written by Team LawSikho. This article discusses the use of RTI in getting information regarding Public Authorities.

Introduction

The examples given earlier are cursory. Before we move on to filing and drafting RTI applications, it is important to appreciate fully how RTI can touch our personal lives. In this discussion, we explore how RTI can be used to find out information about real estate, pension benefits, banking services, insurance schemes, etc.

A large part of the financial business is carried out by private sector companies which do not fall under the purview of RTI directly. However, you may be able to access mechanisms established by different financial regulators to get information or resolve disputes. For example, the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDA) and Reserve Bank of India (RBI) have set up separate ombudsman schemes to settle disputes or provide information. Note that ombudsman schemes are more oriented towards clarifications and dispute resolution and transparency or provision of information may be incidental. Such mechanisms are also not uniformly available across different sectors.

However, RTI is a reliable mechanism that can be used by you to get useful information on the functioning of public authorities. Where a commercial entity itself has significant government involvement, information can be directly obtained from such entity as it may qualify as a public authority. Where the entity is a private body, one may have to go one level higher to the regulator and request information that is filed by private bodies with such regulators.

Insurance

 There are only five public sector insurance companies – Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), New India Assurance, United India Insurance, Oriental India Insurance, and National Insurance. You can approach these companies directly. However, private insurers will have to be approached through IRDA. RTI is a reliable mechanism that can be used by you to get useful information on the functioning of public authorities. You can check your ‘claim’ status if delayed. You can also file an application asking for details of deduction of yearly state insurance and monthly and yearly records incase deduction is not made in the state insurance account and also ask the basis for such a decision.

Provident Fund

There have been many instances of employers not depositing the contributions towards Employee Provident Fund (EPF) deducted from an employee’s salary. Those of you who have transferred EPF balances know the pain of doing so. It is hard to track the balance transfers. Technically provident fund contribution arises in the context of a private relationship between the employer and the employee, but RTI can help in checking the status. Employees can file an RTI application with the Employee Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) to check account balance as well as track withdrawals from an EPF account. An interesting RTI Application was filed by a widow of a Junior Engineer employed with a government company in this regard. In the application, she asked the Public Authority why the applicant has, for almost 3 years, not received any of the benefits like death-cum-retirement gratuity, increment arrears, leave encashment, “arrear pension”, or his general provident fund and the expected timeline for receiving them.

Real estate

Experts have reported that eighty percent of Mumbai flats do not have an Occupation Certificate (OC), without which you cannot enter a flat. RTI can be used by such individuals to ask for the Information of Disapproval (IoD) with the relevant authority, through which one can know:

• the requisites the builder needs for the project,
• which of the documents he has and which ones are yet to be furnished,
• if the permission from local authority is in place,
• if the project is in the builder’s name or not,
• if the land title is clear or not,
• floor planning of the construction, fire safety planning and so on.  

Here, you should always check the local authority under which the project falls – municipal corporation, collector, gram panchayats and address your RTI application accordingly.

Banks

Sometimes, bank staff can be non-cooperative in giving you information or considering your complaints. If you feel so, RTI can help you secure information about customer service norms, its service, the terms and also help in checking the status of your complaints.
Next, assume you are shopping for the cheapest home loan and a bank is not helping with the required information. You can find interest rates, prepayment norms, and other documentation issues through RTI. Further, nowadays, banks often debit customer’s account despite the customer having ATM failed transaction and fail to reimburse their bank accounts within the stipulated 12 day period. In such cases, you can file RTI application with the respective bank and ask the status of your complaint, why the amount has not been debited in your account, ask for a penalty to be paid to you and also ask for details of officers responsible for such delays. However, please note that RTI is applicable only in cases of nationalized banks. For private sector banks, you will have to go through the RBI systems (for example, you can refer to the procedure and powers of the ‘banking ombudsman’ here, which is different from RTI).

Income tax

According to experts, if all the information provided while filing the return was correct, and the refund hasn’t come, one can check the status with an RTI application. Only an assessee can make an application for knowing the status of his/her income tax refund. Experts suggest this route if you have not received your refund for at least a year.

Can personal income tax details be accessed by third parties? The Supreme Court has held that ordinarily, information pertaining to the personal tax records of an assessee cannot be accessed through an RTI by third persons unless a larger public interest is involved. (See the Supreme Court case of Girish Ramchandra Deshpande vs. CIC, 2012 available here).

Tenders

Allocation of Public Tenders arbitrarily to private parties has caught the attention and ire of many businessmen in the past couple of years. For example, the Coal Scam and 2G Spectrum Case (RTI was used extensively in both events) exposed the illegal methods employed by the government for awarding tenders to selected bodies without following due process as prescribed under the relevant laws of the country.

With RTI Act in place, in tender cases, you can now ask for details of the project, the process followed, the basis of decision making and the relevant contract entered into for carrying out public works. You can also file a complaint if you find the procedure followed to be illegal and follow up on the same through RTI applications.  You can ask for copies of the tender notice, list of companies that put in tenders for a particular contract, all tender documents put in by the various companies, file notings of the tender finalization and selection of the bidder, etc. However, please note that such information must be sought only after the tender is finalized and the successful bidder is selected and appointed. Prior to finalization of the bidder, asking for the above information might get hit by exemptions as laid under Section 8(1) of the RTI Act.

In one interesting RTI application, the applicant sought details of all investigation and action taken by the police department with regard to inappropriate work orders that were given illegally through tenders and one tender in particular. When the applicant complained to the District Collector and Home Minister, an inquiry was ordered. The applicant then filed an RTI application for a copy of the investigation file, moved an appeal upon not receiving the information and then got a favorable verdict granting disclosure of the information.