New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday directed the Reserve Bank of India to disclose information about its annual inspection report of banks and the list of wilful defaulters under the Right to Information Act (RTI).
A Bench headed by Justice L. Nageswara Rao also directed the federal bank to review its policy to disclose information relating to banks under RTI, saying “it is duty bound under the law”.
The bench was hearing contempt petitions filed by RTI activists Subhash Chandra Agrawal and Girish Mittal against the RBI. Ordering the central bank to disclose the information unless exempted under law, the bench did not go ahead with contempt proceedings against the RBI.
In January this year, the top court had issued contempt notice to RBI for not disclosing annual inspection report of banks under RTI.
Earlier, the apex court and the Central Information Commission had both held that the RBI cannot deny information to an information seeker under the transparency law unless the material is exempted from disclosure under the law.
The RBI, in its defence, had said that it cannot disclose information as the annual inspection report of the bank contained “fiduciary” information as defined under the transparency law.
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Ms Kalinga