From spying on wife to fishing for company intel, Sebi battles bizarre RTI requests

“Ms. XXXXXXXXX has been caught red-handed defending (proof attached) the Depository Participant—Bank of Maharashtra—and protecting them from disciplinary actions arising out of multiple regulatory violations spread over a period of one year. Should a misconduct complaint be filed against Ms. XXXX directly with the SEBI Chief, or the CVO, or the Anti-Corruption Bureau, or the Ministry of Finance?”

Another application was filed by the same person on how to file a case against a Sebi official, asking, “How to file a formal corruption case against Ms. XXXXX XXXX, who is a XXX in SEBI?”

In this case, the CPIO conveyed that the information for lodging complaints against employees of Sebi is available on the watchdog’s website. Yet, an appeal was filed on the ground that access to the information requested was refused, which was rejected on the grounds that the information sought is available in public domain.

One RTI applicant - a frequent filer –constantly seeks details of NOCs issued by Sebi to multiple companies for IPOs such as Belrise Industries, Ather Energy, TCNS Clothing, HDFC AMC, RNEL, Tech Mahindra etc. Sebi’s CPIO has consistently replied that such information is not available with the regulator, yet the RTI filings have continued. Sebi noted that not only for the companies mentioned, but the applicant also sought ‘copies of Sebi’s permission or NOC’ for various other listed companies too, through numerous RTI applications. The appellate authority under RTI at Sebi observed that “such repetitive filing of RTI applications amounts to misuse/abuse of the RTI Act”. In the past, there have been instances where one complainant had filed as many as 578 RTIs.

As per Sebi’s annual report, in the last two years, 150-300 RTIs were received every month, raising around 6,500-17,000 queries. Similarly, 300-800 appeals too were received. On many occasions, people send complaints as RTIs, for which Sebi has a dedicated SCORES portal.

Shailesh Gandhi, Former Chief Information Commissioner told Moneycontrol that public authorities should freely share information as per the mandate of the RTI Act. “Citizens are the owners of the assets of the country, and owners should not be denied information about their assets”, Gandhi added. On concerns of misuse, he said, “There are clear-cut carve-outs like intellectual property, privacy, etc.”

Many times, RTIs are more about giving information than seeking information, and hence they get rejected. That’s not all, sometimes the reason for rejection could be the framing of queries, as many people pose them in an interrogatory manner instead of seeking information, people familiar with the issue told Moneycontrol.

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RTI experts suggest for a better strike rate in getting information, it is important to know which public authority may have the information. Also, asking for personal information will not get results. The application should be in the tone of seeking information and not informing or raising a question. Information already available in public domain asked under RTI is unlikely to get any response.  For better and quicker response online RTI mode through https://rtionline.gov.in is advised.