'Property details not exempt under RTI'

NEW DELHI: Overruling former chief information commission A N Tiwari's ruling on disclosure of property details, information commissioner Shailesh Gandhi has said that the information is not exempt under the RTI Act.

In an order allowing for property details to be made public, Gandhi said, "With due respect to the observations of information commissioner A N Tiwari, this Commission noted that in the Surendra Sharma case, the disclosure of property returns of an employee of the respondent company was exempted merely on the basis that the information was confidential and given on the assurance that the confidentiality would not be breached."

He said that there was no specific exemption to deny the information. Gandhi was listening to the plea of an Right to Information (RTI) applicant who had wanted to know from the Municipal Corporation of Delhi the details of unauthorised constructions and internal designs of some houses in the Defence Colony area with specific references to certain properties.