V.K. Jain, J.

1. The respondent before this Court vide application dated 8.8.2011 sought the following information from the PIO of the Passport Office, Ministry of External Affairs:

1. Provide the photocopy of the passport with complete details of Shri Ajeet Singh son of Shri Ram Bahadur Singh, 496 and 498, dandi gadi cantt. Dehradoon. It was issued in 1997-98.

2. Provide the certified Xerox copy of the date of birth certificate, education documents and residential proof certificates.

The aforesaid information was refused by the PIO on the ground that being a third-party information, it was exempt from disclosure under Section 8(1)(j) of the Right to Information Act. Being aggrieved from the refusal of the PIO to furnish the desired information, the respondent approached the Central Information Commission. Vide impugned order dated 1.5.2012, the Commission, inter alia, held as under:

To qualify for this exemption the information must satisfy the following criteria:

1. It must be personal information.

Words in a law should normally be given the meanings given in common language. In common language we would ascribe the adjective 'personal' to an attribute which applies to an indivi