RIGHT TO INFORMATION AND RESERVE BANK OF INDIA


December 18, 2015
RTI and RBI
This refers to ET editorial “Why Turn the RTI Heat on the RBI?” (Economic Times, December 18). The short editorial excellently brings out the implications of the ‘landmark’ judgment of the Apex Court mainly affecting RBI’s role as regulator and supervisor of the financial sector. Though it is for the government and enlightened citizens to interpret and use the judgment in the right spirit, in public interest, reading too much into the rights ignoring the statutory responsibilities vested in institutions can be hazardous. The Supreme Court’s observations like, “The facts reveal that as banks are trying to cover up their underhand actions, they are even more liable to be subjected to public scrutiny” should open the eyes of both government and the institutions and they should, by infusing transparency in transactions, avoid similar indictments in future.
Our legal framework, which has British origin and has not yet been ‘democratised’, insulates masters against action by servants and institutions (both in private and public sector) from litigations by clientele in several situations. Beyond citizen’s right to information, transparency issues in the conduct of statutory bodies and government departments which enjoy certain rights and privileges because of the nature of responsibilities entrusted to them need to be addressed.
The temptation on the part of government to bring in ‘ownership rights’ or on the part of regulators and supervisors to take shelter under provisions of the statute book meant to protect institutions and their clientele from embarrassment in exceptional situations, in a routine manner, should be avoided.
The observations of the Apex Court goes much beyond the issue of parting with information under RTI Act. Without fighting this from a mere legal or prestige  angle to protect the image, by falling back on the secrecy clauses, RBI and other institutions need to go by the spirit of the observations by the highest court.
A quick gesture could be to initiate measures to make public, information the central bank comes into possession and considers useful for banks’ clientele in deciding their relationship with individual banks. The suggestion is not to make public all information collected during the inspection of banks, but to keep depositors and borrowers informed about the health of banks and educate them about the practices and procedures followed by individual banks which can result in erosion of the trust their clientele repose in them keeping the control the central bank has over their operations. If legal provisions stand in the way, they should be got amended, as ‘ease to do business’ include information about the profile of the institution with which a customer deals.

M G WARRIER, Mumbai

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