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March 2015

Part A DECISION OF H.C. & CIC

By Narayan Varma Chartered Accountant
Reading Time 3 mins
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Information, Section (2):
The Appellant, Shri Ramesh Kumar, submitted RTI application dated 20th September 2012 before the Central Public Information Officer (CPIO), Punjab National Bank, Lucknow; seeking information regarding challans through which Income Tax had been deducted from his salary and was deposited with the Income-Tax Department through wrong PAN number etc., through a total of 5 points.

The appellant preferred an appeal dated 10th November 2012 to the first appellate authority (FAA) when he did not receive any information from the CPIO concerned within stipulated time period. Vide reply dated 27th November 2012, CPIO furnished information on point no. 1 and informed on point nos. 2 to 5 that the requested information was 5 to 6 years old, due to which they were facing problems in retrieving the same, and they will furnish the same one they retrieve it. Vide order dated 17th December 2012, FAA held that CPIO has already furnished the information vide letter dated 27-11-2012 and also upheld the CPIO’s decision.

The appellant submitted that he is an ex-employee of the public authority and he retired on 31-3-2012. The Incometax Department had contacted the appellant information him that the public authority had failed to deposit his Income-tax for the years 2006-2011, as they had quoted wrong PAN number in the Form 16 of the appellant. Hence, he sought information under the RTI Act, about the details of the income tax deductions and deposit challan copy for the years 2006-2011. However, the CPIO had only provided information pertaining to years 2009-2011. The information for the year 2006-2009 had not been provided. The appellant submitted that the information would help in settling up the tax issues with the Income Tax Department.

In the second appeal before CIC, the appellant did not inform the bank about the wrong PAN number when the matter came to their notice they corrected the PAN number and submitted revised I.T. return. The tax deducted was not deposited on an individual basis but in consolidated manner (branch wise) by the public authority, hence information sought is not held by the office in the format sought in the RTI application. The copies of month wise bank certificates can be provided to the appellant for the years 2006-2011. They have provided all Form 16 asked for by the appellant. The challan copies for depositing the tax were not available so they provided the copies of acknowledgement for that period.

The CPIO’s submissions are accepted by the Commission that information as held has been provided. However, the CPIO is directed to provide additional information to the appellant regarding the copies of month wise certificate of Income-Tax deducted for the years 2006-2011 within one week of the receipt of the order of the Commission.

[Shri Ramesh Kumar vs. Punjab National Bank, Lucknow & Ors. in CIC/VS/A/2013/001377/MP, in CIC of Delhi dated 23rd July 2014]

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