A woman’s plea for details of income tax returns filed by her estranged husband employed in a Chennai company was declined by the Department of Income Tax on the grounds that it was the “third party information”.
Replying to her petition filed under the Right to Information Act, 2005, the Chief Public Information Officer, Department of Income Tax, Thiruvananthapuram, said the information sought was the “third party information” and could be shared only with the consent of the “third party” under Section 11(1) of the Act.
Hence, when a letter was sent to the woman’s husband, a techie employed in a leading software company in Chennai, for his consent to furnish her with copies of his recent tax returns, he objected to disclosure of the information. The Central Information Commission (CIC) upheld the decision of the Department of Income Tax when the woman moved an appeal.
Maintenance cost
The petitioner said she got married in 2011 and started living separately after some disputes with her husband. In a divorce case that followed, the family court granted her ₹25,000 in maintenance a month.
Since the money was not sufficient to sustain her living standards, she decided to file a petition to increase it. In support of her case and to prove that her husband was earning enough to pay her more than ₹25,000 in monthly maintenance, she filed a petition under the RTI Act for copies of his tax returns.
Passing orders on her appeal against the decision of the Department of Income Tax, the CIC observed that the details pertained to a third party’s personal information and stood exempted from disclosure under Section 8(1)(j) of the Act.
