MUNICIPAL CORPORATION DELHI Vs. RAJBIR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner (hereafter =MCD') has filed the present petition, inter alia, impugning an order dated 06.10.2009 (hereafter =the impugned order') passed by the Central Information Commission (hereafter =the CIC'). By the impugned order, the CIC has allowed respondent's appeal and has directed MCD to disclose the information sought by him. The MCD claims that the information which it is called upon to disclose is exempt from such disclosure under Section 8(1)(j) of the Right to Information Act, 2005 (hereafter =the Act').

(2.) Briefly stated, the relevant facts necessary to address the controversy in this petition are as under:-

(3.) Ms Biji Rajesh, learned counsel for the MCD contended that information regarding the personal assets of its employees is required to be treated as confidential and merely because employees of MCD are required to disclose their assets to MCD, the same would not exclude such information from the scope of Section 8(1)(j) of the Act. She referred to the decision of a Coordinate Bench of this Court in Allahabad Bank v. Nitesh Kumar Tripathi,2013 SCCOnLineDel 2491 in support of her contention. She also referred to the decisions of the Supreme Court in Girish Ramchandra Deshpande v. Central Information Commission &Ors., 2013 1 SCC 212 and R. K. Jain v. Union of India & Anr., 2013 14 SCC 794.