Questioning the Right to Information

New Delhi: What car does the CMD drive?

Which beauty parlour does the Chairman's wife visit?

Did she accompany him on his visit to Chennai?

How many air conditioners does their house have?

Busy bodies, gadflies and eager beavers are turning the Right to Information Act into a right to irritate public sector banks.

The well-meaning Act works on the principle that sunlight is the best disinfectant.

But some of the questions that people are asking the banks are more prying than probing.

State-owned banks spend a lot of time, effort and money answering parliamentary questions. Now they have to do the same to answer the public as well.

At a recently held bankers meet in Delhi, the Finance Minister P Chidambaram gave one such example.

"One of the questions that I came across was, 'How many cars does the bank have, what are the models and the fuel efficiency.' The Act is meant to empower the public. I request the public not to come up with such frivolous queries," he said.

In the United Kingdom, the Act does not cover commercial organisations. In India, however, state enterprises are included as they are considered an extension of the state.

Because of the kind of questions that public sector banks are being subjected to, they have started studying the law for safeguards.

They say the Act puts them at a disadvantage against private sector banks.

SBI?s Chief Managing Director, A K Purwar says, "Of course its not a level playing field."

These bankers are trying to see whether they can take refuge in banking secrecy that does not allow disclosure of customer information.

The Indian Banks Association has told its members that only natural persons and not artificial persons like companies can invoke the Act.

But clarity will emerge only when the Act is agitated before a court of law.