'Edu Institute not under commercial confidence clause of RTI'

Updated on: Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Educational institutions cannot withhold information sought under the RTI Act citing commercial confidence, the Central Information Commission has held.
Information Commissioner Shailesh Gandhi said in his order in a case, "Educational institutions cannot claim exemption under Section 8(1)(d) which relates to commercial confidence. It is necessary (to seek exemption) that an Institution should be commercial or business institutions and educational institutions cannot claim exemption under Section 8(1)(d)."

The case relates to an RTI applicant who sought to know from Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University details of the revalidation of Guru Tegh Bahadur Institute of Technology for the existing programmes.

The applicant also sought from the University documents consisting of the application for Non-Objection Certificate and provisional affiliation and the declaration form regarding the Institute.

The Institute, affiliated to the University, objected to the disclosure of information citing clauses of commercial confidence and personal information under the transparency law.

The Institute told the Commission that there was certain information in the proposals such as PAN numbers and personal details of the faculty, bank statements of the Institution and its commercial information, disclosing which would harm its commercial interest.

The Information Commissioner directed the Institute to disclose the details after severing information such as the bank statements and personal information of the faculty which may be part of the proposal.

'Edu Institute not under commercial confidence clause of RTI'

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