Central Information Commission: The Commission recently addressed an application under the Right to Information Act before the Central Public Information Officer of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Ranchi seeking information pertaining to Special Recruitment in CRPF in 2013 including (i) the list of all the Scheduled Tribe (ST) candidates who appeared in the medical test and (ii) copies of the result of medical test of all the ST candidates.
The appellant filed a second appeal before the Commission on the grounds that the information sought had been incorrectly denied on the basis that CRPF has been exempted from the provisions of the RTI as per Section 24(1) of the RTI Act, 2005.
The respondent submitted that the CRPF has been declared an exempt organization under Section 24(1) read with 2nd Schedule to the RTI Act, 2005 and that the information sought by the appellant did not pertain to allegations of corruption and human rights violations which is why the provisions of the RTI Act would not be applicable in this matter.
The Commission acknowledged that although in this case information had been sought from an organization to which the RTI Act does not apply as per Section 24(1) of the RTI Act, the information sought related to the recruitment of ST candidates, disclosure of which would enhance transparency and credibility of the respondent organization. But it was quick to note that since Point 2 of the RTI application pertains to the Medical Examination Report of the candidates, which is a third party personal information, the same couldn’t be provided to the appellant. Hence, the Commission held that information about the number of ST candidates that had appeared for the examination, the final number of selected ST candidates, the cut-off marks for those belonging to this category, marks obtained by the appellant would have to be provided to the appellant. [Sagar Munda v. Central Public Information Officer, CRPF; Decision No. CIC/SB/A/2016/001248, decided on 16.08.2017]