Reserve bank of India challenges CIC notice to Urjit Patel

NEW DELHI: The Reserve Bank of India has challenged the Central Information Commission’s show-cause notice to Governor Urjit Patel directing him to disclose the list of wilful defaulters of bank loans. The transparency watchdog, which had kicked up a political storm by issuing the notice, had given the RBI until November 26 to respond.

Two days before the deadline, the RBI filed two writ petitions in the Bombay high court challenging the order by Information Commissioner M Sridhar Acharyulu, who retired on November 20, according to people aware of the matter. The petitions – W P L / 3 9 6 9 / 2 0 1 8 a n d WPL/3602/2018 – have been posted for hearing on December 14.

When contacted, the registry dealing with Acharyulu’s cases could not furnish details of the petitions or the grounds on which the RBI had challenged the notice.


“We were informed of the writ petitions by RBI but they have not been furnished so far,” a senior CIC official who did not wish to be identified told ET.

Acharyulu had passed a scathing order and issued the notice to Patel on November 2. His directions come on a Right to Information application filed by Sandeep Singh Jadoun, who had sought the list of bank loan defaulters from the RBI. The banking regulator maintained that the information could not be disclosed.

Acharyulu had given time till November 16. The deadline was extended to November 26 in his final order, where he rejected the RBI’s arguments on non-disclosure and even called its transparency policy “anti-RTI.” He asked the RBI to rectify the problem areas.

“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,” Acharyulu said in the order.