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Decision No. CIC/SG/A/2011/002624/16112 Appeal No. CIC/SG/A/2011/002624 Relevant facts emerging from the Appeal: Appellant : Mr. Vijay Premshanker Pandya 4, Sannidhya Twin Bunglow, Opp. Somdatt Park, Nr. Rajesh apartment, Harinagar Crossing, Gotri Road, Vadodra 390021, Gujrat Mr. G. Manoharan PIO & DGM , Indian Bank, O/o The Dy. General Manager 66 Rajaji Salai, Chennai 600001. : : : : : 11-05-2011 24-06-2011 07-07-2011 21-07-2011 20-09-2011 :

Respondent

RTI application filed on PIO replied on First Appeal filed on First Appellate Authority order of Second Appeal received on

Information Sought:The Appellant has sought the following information from period 01.04.2000 to 31.03.2011:1) Rules Regulations, Guidelines, Circulars, Manuals for Disbursement of Clean MTL. 2) Name and Address of borrowers to whom Housing Loan to individual borrowers and amount of loan by Fatehgunj Branch has given / sanctioned. Date of Disbursement of Loan Date of Repayment of Loan . If not repaid fully, what is outstanding / NPA in amount of `. from 01/04/2000 to 31/03/2011. 3) Any of the above home loan loanee, who have if not repaid the said loan amount to the bank. Please provide present status of the said home loan accounts. 4) Is any of the amount pertaining to the above home loan accounts have been written off / or not, if written off please provide name of the borrower of the home loan loanee and amount of which written off the said home loan accounts and date of which the amount is written off. 5) Please provide written off amount in the bank as Principal Amount of the loan `. and Interest Amount of the Loan ` . 6) Who was the competent authority who has recommended for writing off the home loan accounts. 7) Who was the competent authority who has sanctioned such written off the said home loan accounts. 8) What are the impacts to the bank, by written off the said home loan accounts. 9) Is there any financial loss i.e., in monetary loss to the bank, if any please mention in the amount. 10) If so who was held responsible for taking decision with regards to the instructions which have been passed on by the competent authority. 11) If so was there any departmental actions initiated against such officers or not. 12) If Departmental Action was initiated what was the outcome and whether the home loan amount were fully recovered or not. 13) M/s. Vishal Exports (GROUP) were enjoying certain credit facilities with the bank at Ahmedabad main branch for the period from 01/04/2000 to 31/03/2011. Page 1 of 5

14) Please provide information regarding (a) Nature of Credit / Loan facility amount in ` . (b) Who was competent authority to sanction, recommend, approve and disburse of the said loan amount given to M/s. Vishal Exports (Group). (c) Date of Sanction, Amount of Sanction, Date of Disbursement and Amount of Disbursement. (d) Whether the said loan has been fully repaid by the borrower in time or it was restructured1or became NPA at any point of time? (e) If the loan has not been fully recovered. If not repaid fully, what is outstanding I NPA in amount of ` . 15) Any of the above loan, which have if not repaid fully, the said loan amount to the bank. Please provide present status of the said loan accounts of M/s. Vishal Exports (Group). 16) Is any of the amount pertaining to the above loan accounts have been written off /or not, if written off please provide the loan and amount of which written off the said loan accounts and date of which the amount is written off for M/s. Vishal Exports (Group). 17) Please provide written off amount in the bank as Principal Amount of the loan Rs. and Interest Amount of the Loan ` . for M/s. Vishal Exports (Group). 18) Who was the competent authority has to recommended I for writing off the loan account for M/s. Vishal Exports (Group). 19) Who was the competent authority who has sanctioned such written off the said loan account of M/s. Vishal Exports (Group). 20) What are the impacts to the bank, by written off the said loan account of M/s. Vishal Exports (Group). 21) Is there any financial loss i.e., in monetary loss to the bank, if any please mention in the amount of M/s. Vishal Exports (Group). 22) If so who was held responsible for taking decision with regards to the instructions which have been passed on by the competent authority of M/s. Vishal Exports (Group). 23) If so was there any departmental actions initiated against such officers or not for M/s. Vishal Exports (Group). 24) If Departmental Action was initiated what was the outcome and whether the loan amount were fully recovered or not for M/s. Vishal Exports (Group). 25) Please provide the authentic copies of the Process Notes of Circle Office, Ahmedabad, and Head Office, Chennai, at each stage of Processing, Recommending, Sanctioning, Disbursing, Monitoring and Restructuring of the Three Loan Accounts of M/s. Vadodara Mahanagar Palika Safai Sevak Cooperative Credit Society Ltd., with Fatehgunj Branch, Vadodara. Please mention the names of the Officers/Executives/Senior Officers in-charge of such credit decision, who have laid their hands during the above process. Please provide the entire set of correspondence between the Fatehgunj Branch and the Circle Office, Ahmedabad and H.O., Chennai for the Third Party Payment and its approval by the Competent Authorities. Whether the CBS System is in operation in the bank? And the same was used for monitoring the accounts on monthly basis by the Competent Authorities? Whether accounts were regularly reviewed and renewed before subsequent fresh sanctions? All such correspondence for the monthly monitoring, review renewal by the Competent Authorities at Fatehgunj Branch, Circle Office, Ahmedabad and Head Office, Chennai. Whether the Officers at Circle Office, Ahmedabad and Head Office, Chennai were made to face the departmental enquiry? If yes, their names and the punishment given to them. If not, what was the reason for not making them responsible / accountable for the credit decision. Please provide the authentic copies of Internal Inspection Report, Statutory Audit Reports, CMO Reports, AGM, DGM and any other Senior Officers Visits Reports and their monitoring and follow-up Reports. All the Pre-Release Audit Reports of Clean MTL-I, II and III. Letter of Appointment of CMO by Circle Office for all the Three MTLs, Feed Back Reports of all the Three MTLs. Permission to release the facilities to borrower for all the Three MTLs. 26) Please provide the authentic copies of Attendance Register for the Month of August, 2007 to October, 2007 with full attendance record of Fatehgunj Branch. 27) Please provide the information about the account of M/s. Biotor Industries Ltd., with your Gotri Branch as requested below. 28) M/s. Biotor Industries Ltd., were enjoying certain credit facilities with the bank at Gotri Branch for the period from 01/04/2000 to 31/03/2011.

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29) Please provide information regarding (a) Nature of Credit/Loan facility amount in ` . (b) Who was competent authority to sanction, recommend, approve and disburse of the said loan amount given to M/s. Biotor Industries Ltd., (c) Date of Sanction, Amount of Sanction, Date of Disbursement and Amount of Disbursement. (d) Whether the said loan has been fully repaid by the borrower in time or it was restructured or became NPA at any point of time? (e) If the loan has not been fully recovered. If not repaid fully, what is outstanding / NPA in amount of ` . 30) Any of the above loan, which have if not repaid fully, the said loan amount to the bank. Please provide present status of the said loan accounts of M/s. Biotor Industries Ltd. 31) Is any of the amount pertaining to the above loan accounts have been written off / or not, if written off please provide the loan and amount of which written off the said loan accounts and date of which the amount is written off for M/s. Biotor Industries Ltd. 32) Please provide written off amount in the bank as Principal Amount of the loan Rs. and Interest Amount of the Loan ` . for M/s. Biotor Industries Ltd. 33) Who was the competent authority to recommended for writing off the loan account for M/s. Biotor Industries Ltd. 34) Who was the competent authority who has sanctioned such written off the said loan account of M/s. Biotor Industries Ltd. 35) What are the impacts to the bank, by written off the said loan account of M/s. Biotor Industries Ltd. 36) Is there any financial loss i.e., in monetary loss to the bank, if any please mention in the amount of M/s. Biotor Industries Ltd. 37) If so who was held responsible for taking decision with regards to the instructions which have been passed on by the competent authority of M/s. Biotor Industries Ltd. 38) If so was there any departmental actions initiated against such officers or not for M/s. Biotor Industries Ltd. 39) If Departmental Action was initiated what was the outcome and whether the loan amount were fully recovered or not for M/s. Biotor Industries Ltd. PIOs Reply:The following reply was given to the appellant :In reply to 1) The information sought is internal matters. Hence not provided. In reply to 2) & 3) - Our Fatehgunj had sanctioned 79 home loans. As regards to other details such as name, amount, date of disbursement, present status etc, the information sought is about account details of a third-party customer which the Bank held in commercial confidence, could not be disclosed. Section 8(1) (d) of the RTI Act exempts the disclosure of such information. Accordingly the information sought by you is not provided. In reply to 4) As per branch records no home loan account is written off. In reply to 5) Nil In reply to 6) Nil In reply to 7) Nil In reply to 8) - Nil In reply to 9) - Nil In reply to 10) - Nil In reply to 11) - Nil In reply to 12) Nil In reply to 13) & 25) - The information sought is about account details of a third-party customer which the Bank held in commercial confidence, could not be disclosed. Section 8(1) (d) of the RTI Act exempts the disclosure of such information. Accordingly the information sought by you is not provided. In reply to 26) The information sought has no relation to any public activity or interest or which would cause unwarranted invasion of the privacy, exempted under Section 8(1)(j) of RTI Act.

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In reply to 27) 39) - The information sought is about account details of a third-party customer which the Bank held in commercial confidence, could not be disclosed. Section 8(1) (d) of the RTI Act exempts the disclosure of such information. Accordingly the information sought by you is not provided. Grounds for the First Appeal: Unsatisfactory reply was given by PIO. Order of the First Appellate Authority (FAA): The PIO furnished information relating to number of Home loan accounts in our Fatheganj branch and on written off of home loan accounts. Regarding the information relating to M/s. Vishal Exports Group, M/s. Vadodara Mahanagar Palika Safai Sevak Cooperative Credit Society Ltd; M/s. Biotor Industries Ltd. with our Gotri branch, the information is pertaining to third party customers. Bank has the obligation to maintain the secrecy of its customers details and the information sought is held in commercial confidence. Section 8(1) (d) of RTI Act exempts such disclosure. Regarding the copies of attendance register of our Fatheganj branch it is informed that it has no relation to any public activity or interest and is unwarranted invasion of privacy, exempted under section 8(1)(j) of RTI Act. Ground of the Second Appeal: Unsatisfactory reply was given by the PIO and Unsatisfactory order was passed by the FAA. Relevant Facts emerging during Hearing: The following were present Appellant : Mr. Vijay Premshanker Pandya on video conference from NIC-Vadodara Studio; Respondent: Mr. Satyanarayan Murty, Sr. Manager and Mr. T. Chandershekharan, AGM on behalf of Mr. G. Manoharan, PIO & DGM on video conference from NIC-Chennai Studio; At query-26 the Appellant has sought attested photocopy of the attendance register of the Bank for he period August 2007 to October 2007 of Fatehganj Branch. For which the respondent has claimed exemption under Section 8(1)(j) of the RTI Act. The attendance register of the public authority cannot be considered exempt under Section 8(1)(j) or any other sections of Section 8(1). Hence this information will have to be provided to the Appellant. Most of the queries of the Appellant seek information about the transactions of the customers of the bank with it. The Bank holds information regarding its customers in fiduciary relationship and hence it is exempt under Section 8(1)(e) of the RTI Act. Section 8 (1) (e) of the RTI Act exempts from disclosure information available to a person in his fiduciary relationship, unless the competent authority is satisfied that the larger public interest warrants the disclosure of such information; The traditional definition of a fiduciary is a person who occupies a position of trust in relation to someone else, therefore requiring him to act for the latter's benefit within the scope of that relationship. In business or law, we generally mean someone who has specific duties, such as those that attend a particular profession or role, e.g. doctor, lawyer, financial analyst or trustee. Another important characteristic of such a relationship is that the information must be given by the holder of information who must have a choice,- as when a litigant goes to a particular lawyer, a customer chooses a particular bank, or a patient goes to particular doctor. An equally important characteristic for the relationship to qualify as a fiduciary relationship is that the provider of information gives the information for using it for the benefit of the one who is providing the information. All relationships usually have an element of trust, but all of them cannot be classified as fiduciary. Information provided in discharge of a statutory requirement, or to obtain a job, or to get a license, cannot be considered to have been given in a fiduciary relationship. Page 4 of 5

In the instant case very clearly a fiduciary relationship exists, since customers of a Bank come to it because of the implicit trust they have; and they provide information to the Bank for their own benefit. Customers also have a choice of which bank they wish to approach. Hence unless a large public interest is shown the information is exempted from disclosure. In the instant case no larger public interest has been demonstrated.

Decision: The Appeal is allowed. The PIO is directed to provide attested copy of the attendance sheet sought at query 26 to the Appellant before 25 December 2011.
This decision is announced in open chamber. Notice of this decision be given free of cost to the parties. Any information in compliance with this Order will be provided free of cost as per Section 7(6) of RTI Act.

Shailesh Gandhi Information Commissioner 05 December 2011

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