Leaders refuse to reveal I-T details

Leaders refuse to reveal I-T details
Karuna, Maran & Chidambaram Seek To Protect Tax Info From RTI Applicant
Jeeva | TNN 26th april 2011 page no.4, chennai edition
Chennai: After former chief justice of India KG Balakrishnan objected to disclosure of his income tax returns under the Right To Information Act, Tamil Nadu chief minister M Karunanidhi, Union home minister P Chidambaram and Union textiles minister Dayanidhi Maran have now sought to protect their income details from being furnished to an RTI applicant.
The three made clear their objection after V Gopalakrishnan of KK Nagar filed an RTI application last month seeking copies of their I-T returns from 2006-07 to 2010-11.
In separate communications to the public information officer of the incometax office in Chennai, they said the details furnished in their I-T returns were “personal and confidential” and should not be disclosed to the applicant.
The information officer had earlier sought their objection, if any, on furnishing the I-T returns to the applicant as it was a ‘third party information’.
Karunanidhi’s authorised representative T Sivasubramanian, in a letter on April 12, objected to the proposed disclosure of information to the applicant. He said: “Under Section 8(1)(j) of the RTI Act, information which relates to personal information the disclosure of which has no relationship in any public activity or interest or which would cause unwarranted invasion of privacy of the individual is exempted from the disclosure.”
Chidambaram, in his communication to the I-T department on April 11, said: “There is no larger public interest that could warrant disclosure of information relating to my income-tax returns. The applicant’s request is in the nature of a fishing enquiry and the request is not intended to serve any public interest.”
Maran said, “Income-tax returns filed by me are highly confidential in nature and I consider the disclosure to be an unwarranted invasion of my privacy. The information being personal in nature, the disclosure thereof will cause serious prejudice to me and therefore I object the disclosure to any third parties. The disclosure may cause harm or injury to my interest.”
Accepting their objection, the department rejected the application last week, saying the “RTI query has no relationship with any public activity or interest and there is no larger public interest involved in disclosing the information.”
For Union fertilizer minister MK Alagiri, whose I-T returns were also sought by Gopalakrishnan, the income tax office in Madurai rejected the RTI application without even calling for Alagiri’s objection.
The information officer quoted five decisions of the Central Information Commission in support of his rejection of the application on April 20.
As the Central Information Commission itself had given orders for and against the disclosure of IT-returns in several cases, Gopalakrishnan said he was planning to challenge the rejection of his application.