An important case going on in Delhi High Court regarding PM Cares Fund has once again intensified the debate on transparency and privacy in the country. Delhi High Court, while making oral remarks on Tuesday (January 13, 2023), said that even if PM Cares Fund is a government or public institution, it also gets the right to privacy under the Right to Information Act. The court made it clear that being a public authority of an organization does not mean that every information about it should be made open to the public.
Social activist Girish Mittal had filed an application in Delhi High Court.
This case is related to the appeal filed by Mumbai social worker Girish Mittal. Girish Mittal had asked for documents related to tax exemption given to PM Cares Fund from the Income Tax Department under the RTI Act. He wanted to know which documents were given by PM Cares Fund for tax exemption, which officials made what comments on it and which institutions got tax exemption between 2019 and 2020 or which were denied. The Central Information Commission i.e. CIC had ordered the Income Tax Department to provide this information, but the Income Tax Department challenged it and approached the Delhi High Court.
The single judge bench of Delhi High Court had rejected the petition.
The single judge bench of Delhi High Court canceled the order of CIC and said that under Section 138 of the Income Tax Act, information related to taxpayers cannot be made public, hence CIC cannot order to provide such information. Now Girish Mittal has appealed against this decision. His lawyer argued in the court that Section 8(1) of the RTI Act is only to protect the privacy of an individual and not for a public charitable trust like PM Cares. He said that this fund has been created with the donations of the countrymen, hence its functioning should be transparent.
Delhi High Court gave important indications while hearing the case
While hearing the case, the double bench of Delhi High Court gave an important indication that even if an organization is government, some of its information can still remain within the ambit of privacy. The court said that by doing public work an organization does not lose all its confidentiality. Now the next hearing of this case will be on February 10, 2026. Then it will be decided how to strike a balance between transparency and privacy and whether the information about tax exemption related to PM Cares Fund will reach the general public or not.
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