Complaint letter copy againsgt government employee

Such exemption may be valid if a third-party asks for a copy of a complaint; that'd constitute an unwarranted invasion in the privacy of your father. But not to an appllication by the applicant (father) seeking a copy of complaint against the applicant (father) himself. At the most, secrecy of the complainant may have to be protected in terms of Section 10 of the Act, but denial of information in its entirety, in my opinion, is not justifiable.

In A. L. Agrawal v. Delhi University, the applicant had sought a copy of complaint purportedly for s*xual harassment made against the applicant by students underaking research work under the applicant's guidance. The  PIO denied a copy of the complaint to the applicant. Referreing to the  Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013, the service rules applicable to the applicant and principles of natural justice, the Central Information Commission had held that there was no prohibition on sharing of the copy of complaint with the complained officers and that principles of natural justice demanded that the copy of the complaint must be given to the accused officer so that he would get ample opportunity to defend the charge made against him.

In Ayyappan v. Bairavaswamy, the Central Information Commission turned down the defence of Section 8(1)(g) of the RTI Act (endangering life or physical safety of any person) and directed the PIO to supply the police complaint lodged by the applicant's wife against the applicant and his parents regarding dowry harassment, safety and security.

In R. K. Gaur v. D.G. Vigilance, the Cenral Information Commission directed PIO to provide information on the nature of the complaint filed against the applicant without revealing the names and address of the complainant, by applying Section 10 of the RTI Act.

I'd suggest that you approach the First Appellate Authority and challenge the decision of the PIO on the grounds that:

A. It is the applicant's personal information and thus not exempted from disclosure under Section 8(1)(j) of the RTI Act to the applicant qua the applicant himself;

B. The authority has no fiduciary relationship with the complainant; if anything, there is a fiduciary relationship between the public authority and the applicant;

C. It not as if the disclosure of information will reveal any confidential information, the applicant already being aware of the complaint made by the complainant (as evidenced by the specific RTI application which was denied on the ground of confidentiality, not on non-existence);

D. That the principles of natural justice require that the applicant be aware of the allegations raised against him;

E. Strictly without prejudice and in strictly in the alternative, if it is considered that the complaint may have any information, the disclosure of which may impede the investigation, if any, or reveal any complainant/witness, the same can be severed before supplying the information, but subject to strictly establishing that such severance is absolutely necessary.

Even otherwise, in the event that the authorities intend to take any action against your father or investigate on the basis of allegations made in the said letter/complaint, then you'r father has a right to have a copy of the letter and to receive an opportunity of being heard to defend himself against the allegations contained in such letter. You have already brought it on record that you sought a copy of the said allegations and were denied; retain a copy of this communication and PIO response and don't worry; if the authorities take any action against your father without hearing his version, you'd have a good ground to challenge any such finding/action and authorities might find it hard to sustain such an action. Heck, it may even be cruelty to make false imputations about the father of a spouse!

Dear Mr. Atul (public ID),

Thanks for sharing.

The downlaod of files has failed.

Pls attach again and post link. 

Originally posted by : Kumar Doab
	Dear Mr. Atul (public ID), Thanks for sharing. The downlaod of files has failed. Pls attach again and post link.

Thanks for the heads up ... don't know what went wrong with the attachments. I've inserted links to the CIC decisions in my post itself. But is there a way to remove the 'faulty' attachments? I see no option when I edit my original post.

Yes you have.

Since the title did not have any clour code, therefore missed it.

Once again thanks for posting.

I appreciate for making citations and posting links for benefit of all readers.

That should be the spirit at forums like LCI.

Appreciation is  for Mr. Atul (public ID).

It is good to see that some querist/authors do come back to appreciate the members/experts.

It does encourage and motivate.

Originally posted by : Kumar Doab
	It is good to see that some querist/authors do come back to appreciate the members/experts.

Thats very true and for a twofold reason. Firstly, a contributor here may derive some sastisfaction from having been of assistance to someone. And secondly, if the querist takes the time to respond back on how the answer helped him in court/real life (if it did) that helps the contributor in understanding the attitude of different courts and different levels of judiciary to practical difficulties; it also makes this exercise fruitful not just for the querist and the contributor but also to anyone who comes here subsequently (through a Google Search, for example) who can then see how the things worked out. Unfortunately, I can see a general attitude here (not just to my posts which are very few in number, but in many other posts here) where querists post a question impatiently seeking a quick and thorough legal opinion (like a permium service!), but never bother to check back having received answers. [shrug]

Dear Mr. Mr. Atul (public ID),

Agreed.

The querist/author can come back any time.

The threads are open.