CIC decisions — BSNL and Posts & Telegraphs — Right to Information (RTI) Notes

CIC decisions — BSNL and Posts & Telegraphs

BSNL is a company, and the postal service handles millions of private letters — so both are tempted to say “we are not really a government office” or “this is our customers’ private data”. The Commissions have answered both temptations: BSNL is a public authority, but a subscriber’s data is private. Ownership decides the forum; the nature of the information decides the outcome.

A public authority holding private data

A. BSNL and the postal department are public authorities

BSNL is a State-owned corporation; the Department of Posts is a government department. Both fall within s. 2(h) — a body “owned, controlled or substantially financed” by government. Corporate form is no shield: BSNL cannot refuse an RTI request on the ground that it is “just a company”.

B. But subscriber information is personal (s. 8(1)(j))

The customer-facing information these bodies hold — SIM-card allotment, call-detail records, addresses, postal transactions — is the personal information of identifiable individuals. Disclosing which subscribers hold which numbers in a locality is an unwarranted invasion of privacy under s. 8(1)(j), absent a larger public interest (e.g. a court-ordered investigation).

Section 2(h), Right to Information Act, 2005: “‘public authority’ means any authority or body or institution of self-government… owned, controlled or substantially financed… directly or indirectly by funds provided by the appropriate Government.”

In Simple Terms: Being a company does not take BSNL outside the Act, because it is government-owned. It must answer RTI requests about itself — its tenders, tariffs and administration — but not hand over its customers’ private details.

⚠️ DON’T CONFUSE — “public authority” does not mean “everything is public”

That BSNL is a public authority answers only the first question (who must reply). It does not follow that all its records are open. A subscriber’s SIM and call data is third-party personal information under s. 8(1)(j) and stays protected. Never let “it is a public authority” collapse into “so disclose everything” — the two questions are distinct.

🧩 WORKED EXAMPLE — the SIM-card list (2011)

Facts. An applicant asks BSNL for details of all SIM cards issued to subscribers in a particular locality. BSNL says it is a company and the data is confidential.

Rule. BSNL is a public authority (s. 2(h)); but subscriber SIM data is third-party personal information exempt under s. 8(1)(j) unless a larger public interest is shown.

Apply. The decoy is “BSNL is a company” — it is a State-owned company and squarely a public authority, so it must process the request. But the request seeks the private details of thousands of unconnected individuals; that is a textbook unwarranted invasion of privacy under s. 8(1)(j), with no public interest disclosed. (A specific number tied to a court-ordered probe would be a different case.)

Conclusion. BSNL cannot refuse as a “company”, but must refuse the SIM-holder data as personal information under s. 8(1)(j).

flowchart TD
    A["BSNL / POSTS & TELEGRAPHS"]
    A --> B["Q1 Who must reply? s. 2(h)<br/>State-owned -> PUBLIC AUTHORITY<br/>(corporate form is no escape)"]
    A --> C["Q2 What is disclosable?"]
    C --> D["About ITSELF — tenders, tariffs,<br/>administration -> DISCLOSE"]
    C --> E["About CUSTOMERS — SIM data,<br/>call records, postal data<br/>-> s. 8(1)(j) PERSONAL, withhold"]
    classDef box fill:#e8f0fe,stroke:#333,color:#111;
    class A,B,C,D,E box;

Case Laws

CPIO, Supreme Court of India v. Subhash Chandra Agarwal (2020) — being a public authority does not defeat the s. 8(1)(j) privacy balance for personal data held by it.
Girish Ramchandra Deshpande v. CIC (2013) — third-party personal information is exempt without a demonstrated public interest — squarely applicable to subscriber data.
Reserve Bank of India v. Jayantilal N. Mistry (2016) — a public authority holds its records in trust and must disclose those concerning its own functioning.

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