Rejecting government's submission that an annual confidential report (ACR) is sacrosanct, the Punjab State Information Commission has in a landmark verdict upheld the right of an employee to have access to his or her ACR.
An application moved by Faquir Chand Sharma, an office superintendent in the Public Works Department (Buildings and Roads), to his executive engineer for supply of copies of his ACRs for six years - from 2000 to 2006 - under the Right to Information Act (RTI) was rejected on the plea that the information sought was exempt from the purview of the RTI Act.
Aggrieved Faquir Chand preferred an appeal before the State Information Commission by raising a pertinent issue as to "whether an employee is entitled, under the RTI Act, 2005, to have access to his or her ACR or not."
Though the appeal was initially listed before State Information Commissioner (SIC) R.K. Gupta who subsequently desired that a Full Bench of the commission dispose this appeal, as its decision would have far-reaching implications.
A Full Bench comprising Rajan Kashyap, R.K. Gupta and Surinder Singh was constituted with Brij Mohan Lal, an advocate, made amicus curiae. Additional Secretary, personnel of the Punjab Government, too appeared on behalf of the executive engineer. The order, issued on November 5, has been posted on the website of the commission.
It was argued that information in an ACR was held by the state in a fiduciary relationship, and, therefore, in terms of the RTI Act, unless larger public interest warrants to the contrary, it was exempt from disclosure.
Further, it was argued that the information sought was personal and had no relationship to public activity. Further, an order of the Central Information Commission as well as federal instructions that the ACRs are not to be communicated or shown to the officer concerned except to the extent of communicating any adverse remarks were also made for denying the application.
The Full Bench held that the rules and instructions have to give way to the legislative command. Further, the RTI Act, the bench held, was a progressive measure aimed at bringing about greater transparency in the working of the government.
"In our view keeping officials informed about how their superiors assess their performance would only result in improvement in the overall work environment," the order said.
"We are convinced that permitting the disclosure of ACR entries to the employee concerned would lead the reporting officers to be more fair and objective in their assessment. This would lead to overall betterment of the morale of the employees and a consequential improvement in the administration," the order said.
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