केन्द्रीय सचू ना आयोग Central Information Commission बाबा गगं नाथ माग,ग मनु नरका

Baba Gangnath Marg, Munirka नई दिल्ली, New Delhi – 110067 नितीय अपील संख्या / Second Appeal No. CIC/MOEAF/A/2024/631824 Shri Sheeraz Seerat … अपीलकता/ग Appellant VERSUS/बनाम PIO, RPO, Srinagar, Ministry of External Affairs …प्रनतवािीगण /Respondent Date of Hearing : 05.08.2025 Date of Decision : 05.08.2025 Chief Information Commissioner : Shri Heeralal Samariya Relevant facts emerging from appeal:

RTI application filed on : 20.05.2024 PIO replied on : 24.05.2024 First Appeal filed on : 29.05.2024 First Appellate Order on : 26.06.2024 2^ndAppeal/complaint received on : 25.07.2024 Information sought and background of the case:

The Appellant filed an RTI application dated 20.05.2024 seeking information on the following points:-

“1. A list of passport applicants whose applications have been denied, not issued, or are pending due to the involvement of their family members (such as Father, Brother, Husband, etc.) in any criminal or other unlawful activities from the year 2014 till the present date.

2. The specific reasons for the denial, non-issuance, or pending status of these passport applications.

3. Detailed information including the names, parentage, and addresses of the applicants whose passport applications were affected due to the aforementioned reasons.

4. The total number of such cases recorded each year from 2014 till the present date.

5. The procedures and guidelines followed by the Passport Office in assessing and deciding on such cases.

6. Period for which the information is sought from 2014 to the present date.

7. If the requested information does not pertain to your department, kindly transfer the application to the concerned department as per Section 6(3) of the RTI Act, 2005.”

The CPIO, Passport Office, Srinagar vide letter dated 24.05.2024 replied as under:-

“This has reference to online RTI No MEAPD/R/E/24/02486 dated 20.05.2024 on the subject cited above. In this connection, it is to intimate that the passports are issued on the basis of clear Police verification Report from J&K CID. As far as your request under RTI Act, it falls Under Section 8 (1) (j)

of Right to information Act-2005, and cannot be shared”

Dissatisfied with the response received from the CPIO, the Appellant filed a First Appeal dated 29.05.2024. The FAA, Passport Office, Srinagar vide order dated

26.06.2024 replied as under:-

“I have gone through RTI request of the Appellant as well as the grounds canvassed by the Appellant in his appeal. After perusing the same, I find that the information sought by the Appellant is neither compiled nor collated in this office. It is a trite law that, where the information sought is not the part of the record of a public authority and where such information is not required to be maintained under any law or rules or regulations of the authority, the RTI Act does not cast any obligation upon the CPIO to collect or collate such non- available information and then furnish it to the Applicant. This view of mine is also fortified by a decision of the Central Information Commission bearing Case No. CIC/DOP&T/A/2018/170564 dated 05.01.2021 titled as "Yogesh Kumar Vs. CPIO, M/o Personal Public Grievances and Pension, DOP&T, New Delhi".”

Aggrieved and dissatisfied, the Appellant approached the Commission with the instant Second Appeal.

Facts emerging in Course of Hearing:

Hearing was scheduled after giving prior notice to both the parties.

Appellant: Not present Respondent: Shri Gagan Gupta was present during hearing.

Respondent alone is present for the hearing and stated that information sought by the Appellant was denied, since it related to personal information of third party individuals and disclosure of such information would lead to infringement of their privacy. Moreover, the Appellant had not stated what larger public interest would be served by disclosure of such information. It was also emphasised by the Respondent’s representative that the information