Deepali Kalia
In the first week of July the Supreme Court will hear petitions filed by various banks including HDFC and SBI Bank seeking a direction from the Reserve Bank of India to exempt information associated with their customers, trade secrets, unpublished price sensitive information, risk rating from The Right to Information Act.
The matter will be heard by a Bench led by Justice L Nageswara Rao.
The Banks told the court that public disclosure of information relating to business strategies, risk management, commercial confidence, and internal system would negatively impact the competitive position of Banks and will not serve the interest of the public at large.
Four private Banks- HDFC, Axis, ICICI and Yes Bank in their joint petition stated that RBI as a banker to the government and banking regulator is privy to a lot of sensitive information, the disclosure of which would not serve the public interest.
The petition further stated that RBI is also privy to personal information of customers and therefore the disclosure of which would risk the privacy and security of such individuals.
The petition led by HDFC bank contended that disclosure of inspection reports will violate the privacy of Banks, their customers, employees and that as a private entity the RTI is not applicable to them. Therefore, information concerning their employees, customers cannot be sought under the act.
The Apex court last month had made paramount for RBI to disclose financial information in association with private and public banks under the RTI Act, reviving its 2015 judgment.
The Supreme court had rejected a joint plea by the Central government and 10 Banks which had sought an override of the 2015 judgment in Jayantilal N Mistry that had mandated that RBI to disclose inspection reports as well as information about willful defaulters of the banks on the ground that no fiduciary relationship existed between the Central Bank and the other Banks.