Calling it a “last opportunity”, a bench of Justices L Nageswara Rao and MR Shah asked the central bank to withdraw it’s non-disclosure policy, which was in violation of top court’s judgement.
SC and the Central Information Commission had earlier held that the RBI cannot refuse to put the inspection reports in the public domain under the transparency law.
In January this year, the top court had issued contempt notice to RBI for not disclosing annual inspection report of banks under RTI.
The CIC too had issued a show-cause notice to Urjit Patel, then governor of the RBI, for not honouring a judgment of the apex court on disclosure of wilful defaulters’ list who had not paid loans of Rs 50 crore and more.
RBI had refused to disclose banks’ annual inspection reports arguing that it has the discretion to provide details depending on the nature of information and the consequences it would have on the country’s economy.
RBI had raised objections that disclosure of the report may create unwarranted panic and could trigger a run on bank as such info is often amplified by the media.
The bench was hearing a contempt petition filed by RTI activist S C Agrawal against the RBI.
Agrawal had sought complete information including related documents from RBI on imposition of fines on some banks for violating rules.
He had also sought the list of banks and the default for which show cause notices was issued to them before the fine was imposed.
Despite the apex court’s judgement for disclosure of such information, the RBI had issued a “Disclosure Policy” under which it has listed certain information as being exempted from being disclosed of the RTI Act.
“It is to be noted that these specific information are similar to what were held not to be exempted by the Supreme Court,” claimed the plea.
The RBI had refused to disclose such information on the grounds of economic interest and holding such information in fiduciary relationship with these individual banks.
“Such reason is in direct contempt with this court’s judgment. The information titles which are in contempt belong to Department of Banking Regulation, Banking Supervision, Cooperative Banking Regulation/Department of Cooperative Banking Supervision and Consumer Education and Protection Department.
“These exempted information under the policy were held to be not exempted by the Supreme Court. Thus, this exemption leads to contempt of this court’s order,” the plea has said.
The Supreme Court had in 2015 held that RBI should take rigid action against those banks and financial institutions which have been indulging in “disreputable business practices” and said it cannot withhold information on defaulters and other issues covered under the RTI Act.
It had further clarified that RBI cannot withhold information under the “guise” of confidence or trust with financial institutions and is accountable to provide information sought by general public.
via RBI: Disclose defaulters list, NPAs of banks under RTI: SC gives final warning to RBI
aniltikotekar4sme.com 