Stranger to a loan account have no locus standi to seek information under RTI regarding loan accounts – CIC

While deciding the appeals filed by one Arun Pradhan against State Bank of India, the Central Information Commission has clarified that a person who is neither a borrower nor a guarantor in a loan account has no locus standi to seek information regarding the account.

Earlier, while deciding AR Shah v UBI, the CIC had held that Bank is clearly in a fiduciary relationship with its customers, both in relation to the information entrusted by them to the Bank as well as in regard to the business dealing between the two and hence the Bank may invoke Section 8(1)(e) of the RTI Act to deny information related to the customers, sought by a third party.

The CIC also reiterated that the rights available to public under the RTI Act is to be exercised with full responsibility so as not to overburden the public authority with frivolous and vexatious RTI applications which impinge on the scarce resources of the public authority and use the cherished right given in the RTI Act, 2005 in a diligent manner so as to enable the public authority to use its time and resources for providing information expeditiously and efficiently.