Disclosing names and particulars of students admitted under the economically weaker section (EWS) quota would invade children’s privacy since “the information about names and particulars of students is personal information [that is] held by the school in a fiduciary capacity”, the Central Information Commission ruled. The Commission, which rules on second appeals filed under the Right to Information Act, 2005, held that specific information including students’ names, their parents’ names and similar information is barred from public disclosure under Section 8(1)(j) of the RTI Act that exempts personal information of private citizens from being disclosed in response to an RTI application. SCC Online first reported this. The Information Commissioner Yashvardhan Kumar Sinha was ruling on a second appeal filed by Anita Chaudhary under the RTI Act on July 19, 2018. Under the RTI Act, Chaudhary had sought the names, parents’ names and the copies parents’ income certificates of all students admitted under the EWS quota in classes 8 and 12 of Baptist Convent Senior Secondary School in Delhi in the year 2017-18. The second appeal was heard by the Commission in June 2020. The Information Commissioner instead directed the concerned public information officer (PIO) in the Delhi government’s Department of Education to give Chaudhary information about the total number of students, if any, admitted under EWS quota in classes 8 and 12 of the school. The PIO argued that he had given no information to Chaudhary under the RTI Act because data about online registration of students was available from…
