CIC rejects RTI appeal of Income Tax informer regarding assets of 100 I-T officers

NEW DELHI: Rakesh Kumar Gupta, who claimed to be an informer to the Income Tax department (I-T Dept), filed an application under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, seeking information of all the records available with the I-T Dept in respect of several assessees for various assessment years.  The information related to all officers working in all wings of Income Tax Offices in Delhi, Central Delhi, Chandigarh and Mumbai, which amounted to 100 odd officers.
 
Gupta had asked for soft copies of all records of these officers, which included their asset statements as well asset statements of their spouses and persons dependent on them for the last 10 years; details of immoveable assets acquired by them in the last 10 years along with their sources. He also wanted inspection of all these records under Section 4 of the RTI Act.
 
The Central Information Commission (CIC) Bench comprising Basant Seth and Prof M Sridhar Acharyulu recently heard Gupta’s second appeal. His RTI application dates back to 2011.The bench rejected his second appeal on the grounds that information sought by him was not in public interest but it was a means of making money from the I-T Dept.
 
The Bench observed that Gupta being an ‘informer’ as claimed by him, would be earning reward money from information he would obtain, which is 10% of the amount recovered by the I-T Dept, on the basis of his information.
 
The CIC order quoted specific sections in the RTI Act to dispose of the case. It states, “As per Section 6(2), the applicant need not give reasons for demanding information. But under Section 8 the appellant has to inform the public interest; under Section 11, the Public Information Officer (PIO) has to examine whether there is any public interest in this demand.”
 
The bench further observed, “Most important factor to be noticed is that appellant is ‘informer’, which means he earns money at the rate of 10% of the tax amount recovered from the taxpayers because of the information given.
 
The question to be considered is, if he is using RTI route to collect information and verify whether assessee has suppressed income and provides that information to the I-T office. If his tip off results in recovery, he would get 10% as incentive. Whether RTI can be used to advance income interest of individual becoming ‘informer’, or whether ‘informer’ has right to such information that could fetch him income?’’ 

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