The Central Information Commission has pulled up the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for its “anti-RTI (Right to Information) policy” and asked the banking regulator to divulge the list of wilful defaulters of loans within 45 days as ordered by the Supreme Court in its 2015 judgement. 

The transparency watchdog - which had kicked up a storm when it issued a show cause notice to RBI Governor Urjit Patel seeking an explanation on why the names of wilful defaulters of loan had not been disclosed, has given a 10-day relief to the RBI and asked it to respond to the notice by November 26. 

Information Commissioner M Sridhar Acharyulu had issued the notice on November 2, giving Patel time till November 16 to explain. Acharyulu, who is set to retire on Tuesday, heard the matter on Friday and gave the central bank time till November 26 as sought by it. 

In a 67-page order, Acharyulu said, “The commission strongly recommends immediate correction and an appropriate action against RBI’s declared anti-RTI policy.” 

He invoked farmer's suicides to lambast the RBI over its secrecy and rejecting the RBI’s argument against disclosure, saying: “When farmers die of shame for recovering a small loan by banks while writing off lakhs of crores of rupees to clean their balance sheets, why banks think that it is their legitimate duty not to shame wilful defaulters by exposing their names? It is an absurd and irresponsible argument reflecting anti-farmer and pro-rich bias of bankers.” 

The order further said: “The commission also directs the RBI’s RTI wing to revise, reform their Section 4 disclosures (voluntary disclosures under RTI Act) and update from time to time.” 

In a sharply-worded order, Acharyulu adjourned the matter. The case will now be transferred to Information Commissioner Sudhir Bhargava, who is tipped to succeed RK Mathur as the Chief Information Commissioner. 

The order came in a case of an RTI application filed by Sandeep Singh Jadoun, who had sought the list of bank loan defaulters from the RBI. The bank had maintained that the information could not be disclosed. 

Acharyulu took a grim view of the way the application was handled by the central public information officer (CPIO) of the RBI. The order recommended disciplinary action against the RBI’s CPIO and recommended that the central bank choose an efficient person as CPIO “who knows the law laid down by the Supreme Court and does not suppress information from the commission and the people.” #casansaar (Source - PTI, Economic Times)