Frequently Asked Questions and Answers

Personal information does not mean information related to the information seeker, but about a third party.  Hence the Section states about ‘unwarranted invasion of the privacy of an individual’.  It is seen that majority of appeals revolve around the exemption on personal information.  The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), Government of India based on the Supreme Court judgement dated 3^rd October 2012 (Girish Ramachandra Deshpande Vs CIC and others) held as follows:

“The performance of an employee is primarily a matter between the employee and the employer and normally those aspects are governed by the service rules which fall under the expression personal information, the disclosure of which has no relationship to any public activity or public interest, on the other hand, the disclosure of which would cause unwarranted invasion of privacy of that individual”.

In law, fiduciary denotes trust, especially with regard to the relationship between a trustee and a beneficiary. An example is the relationship between banker and depositor. Here the fiduciary has the duty to act in the best interest of other party (beneficiary).

It means the opinion noted in the note file by some officer at some point of time. The PIO is not expected to give his/her opinion on a request but just to furnish the matter requested as in the file.