Snehal Upadhyay-
Supreme Court withheld the prayers made by the Union Bank of India and Punjab National Bank to put a stay on the Orders of Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) Right to Information (RTI) notices.
This notice issued by RBI demands these banks to disclose information on defaulters lists, inspection reports etc.
The bench consisting of Justices S Abdul Nazeer and Krishna Murari still on the writ petitions of the banks have issued notice and informed the banks that similar petitions from other banks including State Bank of India and other private banks had been already refused.
RBI has issued the notices to the bank under Section 11(1) of the Right to Information Act with the prospect to make inspection reports. This section grants power to the Central Public Information Officer to get information from a third party. The banks state that their competitors could exploit the disclosure of their internal reports.
Considering, Supreme Court’s 2015 Judgement in the case of Reserve Bank of India v Jayantilal N. Mistry, these RTI notices were issued on April 28.
In this case, the Apex Court held that RBI is duty-bound to disclose defaulters’ lists, inspection reports, and annual statements related to banks under the RTI Act.
The Court had suggested that the banks go for other available legal remedies against the Jayantilal Mistry judgment.
Taking the suggestion given by the Court, all the banks filed their separate writ petitions challenging the RTI notices on grounds of the revelation of sensitive financial information which will be harmful to their business and will compromise the confidentiality of depositors.
The case will be further heard on July 19.