PM Cares Fund has privacy rights under RTI Act even if govt-run: Delhi HC

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday observed that the PM Cares Fund would not lose its right to privacy under the Right to Information Act (RTI Act), even if it is run or controlled by the government, reported Bar and Bench.

 

A Division Bench of Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Tejas Karia made the remark while hearing an appeal by RTI applicant Girish Mittal, who sought disclosure of information submitted by the PM Cares Fund while seeking exemption under the Income Tax (I-T) Act.

 

The Court clarified that the privacy it referred to was not under Article 21 of the Constitution, but the protection available to third parties under Section 8(1)(j) of the RTI Act.

 

 

"Even if it is State, merely because it is State, it does not lose its right to privacy… How can you say that? Merely because there is an entity discharging certain public functions, or if it is managed, supervised and controlled by the government, it is still a juristic personality. How can you deny such a right conferred on it merely because it is a public authority," the Bench said, as quoted by Bar and Bench.

 

"Suppose there is a society or a trust running a school or a football club. Would that society have a right to privacy [under RTI Act] or not… Can you say that without notice to that trust, this information can be given to you? You can't differentiate between the third parties. It can be a private individual, a trust, a body, a society or a cooperative society. It can be anything. Public or not, that would not differentiate, as far as third-party rights under the RTI Act are concerned," the Court added.

 

According to the PM Cares Fund website, it is a public charitable trust with the Prime Minister of India as its Chairperson (ex-officio). “The Minister of Defence, the Minister of Home Affairs and the Minister of Finance, Government of India, are ex-officio Trustees of the Fund,” the website states.

 

The case

In 2022, the Central Information Commission (CIC) accepted Mittal’s plea and directed the Income Tax Department to release the requested information. However, the order was set aside by a single-judge Bench of the Delhi High Court in January 2024.

 

Justice Subramonium Prasad ruled, "The CIC does not have the jurisdiction to direct furnishing of information, provided for in Section 138 of the I-T Act". The Court further said that even if the CIC had the jurisdiction, the "failure to give PM Cares notice of hearing", would in itself have vitiated the CIC’s order.

 

Mittal then challenged the directive before the Division Bench.

 

Counsel for the petitioner, Pranav Sachdeva, contended on Tuesday that the PM Cares Fund is outside the scope of the exemption provided under Section 8(1)(j) of the RTI Act. He maintained that a government-established public charitable trust cannot assert a right to privacy under the law.

 

Sachdeva also argued that Section 138 of the Income Tax Act offers no protection to the Fund and that even if it were to apply, it would stand superseded by Section 22 of the RTI Act.

 

The next hearing for the case is scheduled on February 10.