Disclosures of Annual Confidential Reports (ACR) comes under Official Secret Act

[karira]

IC Ansari has allowed disclosure of ACR grades but has withheld disclosure of remarks made by Reporting and Reviewing officers:

http://cic.gov.in/CIC-Orders/MA-26052009-06.pdf

The CPIO stated that the appellant has asked for copies of ACRs which was denied on the ground that the requested information is confidential. In the course of hearing, it was however agreed that the CPIO would furnish the ACR grades, while the remarks made by the superior officers, namely Reporting and Reviewing Officer should be withheld u/s 8 (1) (j) of the Act.

[nk agarwal]

The Apex Court, the High Courts, Principle Banch CAT, CIC and SICs of many sattes have allowed disclosure, so why this decision against disclosure?

[chanda_s]

the decision may be perused again. it says "during the course of hearing, it was agreed that.............".

could it be possible that the appellant agreed for this and the ic disposed of the case accordingly?

[nk agarwal]

Dear Mr. Chanda,
The perusal of decision reveals that the hearing was conducted in absence of appellant, so question of appellant agreeing ... does not arise.
Hypothetical visualisation is not useful to understand the conflicting decisions by the same CIC.

[chanda_s]

hypothetical visualisation...? i thought hypothesis was by itself visualisation and visualisation is also hypothesising.

that apart, i am sorry for missing the line regarding the absence of the appellant.

[nk agarwal]

I fail to understand conflicting decisions, I am not an advocate and am only a user of RTI Act-2005. I cannot reconstruct a situation for conflicting decisions on "similar matter" by the same CIC.

[sudarsan]

sir
i am a govt servant i read about the Summary: SC Decision on Disclosure of ACR posted by satish gupta. though summary is given, yet the case/order number has not been mentioned. if possible please supply it.

[karira]

Sudarsan,

It is available in this thread.
Please read the complete thread.

The full order of teh court is also available on our sister website: www.rtiindia.info
in the Courts decisions section.
Please note that since that website is hosted on a separate portal, you need to register on that portal separately.

[karira]

The following recent orders of the CIC have also allowed disclosure of ACR's or grades contained therein. Some have allowed remarks made by higher officers:

http://cic.gov.in/CIC-Orders/SG-08052009-04.pdf
http://cic.gov.in/CIC-Orders/AD-14052009-05.pdf
http://cic.gov.in/CIC-Orders/MA-26052009-06.pdf
http://cic.gov.in/CIC-Orders/AD-14052009-01.pdf
http://cic.gov.in/CIC-Orders/SG-01062009-19.pdf
http://cic.gov.in/CIC-Orders/AD-20052009-05.pdf
http://cic.gov.in/CIC-Orders/AD-12052009-09.pdf

All the above pertain to disclosure of ACR's, etc. pertaining to the applicant himself.

ACR's of others ("third parties") continue to be denied.

[wagh7]

Karira ji,

Thanks for your efforts to help the people. May God bless you and your family members.