Service Book & ACRs of Government employees :-

Service Book & ACRs of Government employees :-

In Girish Ramchandra Deshpande v. Central Information Commissioner and others (2013) 1 SCC 212. The decision of the CIC was challenged before the supreme court and court affirmed the decision given by the CIC. Decision of the CIC was :-

“Central Information Commissioner denied the information pertaining to the service career, ACR, criteria of promotion etc. and also denied the details relating to assets, liabilities, movable and immovable properties of the third party on the ground that the information sought for was qualified to be personal information as defined in clause (j) of Section 8(1) of the RTI Act.”

The Supreme Court has decided that :- it is not in the public interest to disclose information towards service career, ACR and all details about properties of public servant therefore decision of the CIC is correct.

In R.K.Jain vs Union Of India & Anr AIR 2013 : the Supreme Court again reiterated the decision given in the Girish Ramchandra Deshpande and held that :-

“the petitioner herein sought for copies of all memos, ACR, show-cause notices and censure/punishment awarded to the third respondent from his employer and also details viz. movable and immovable properties and also the details of his investments, lending and borrowing from banks and other financial institutions.

We are in agreement with the CIC and the courts below that the details called for by the petitioner i.e. copies of all memos issued to the third respondent, ACR, show-cause notices and orders of censure/punishment, etc. are qualified to be personal information as defined in clause (j) of Section 8(1) of the RTI Act thus cannot be disclosed.”

So it is clear from the above discussion that service book and ACR cannot be disclosed under RTI Act.