Former chief justice of India (CJI) K G Balakrishnan’s refusal to reveal his income tax details under the right to information (RTI) act has not gone down with the civil society.

The income tax department, Kochi, had asked the former CJI if the details of his income tax returns could be provided to the RTI applicant who had sought the same. 

Balakrishnan, currently the chairperson of the national human rights commission (NHRC) objected to the disclosure under section 8(1)(j) of the act

“Information which relates to personal information the disclosure of which has no relationship to any public activity or interest, or which would cause unwarrnated invasion of the piracy of the individual are completely exempted from disclosure unless the Central Public Information officer or the state Public Information Officer of the appellate authority, as the case may be, is satisfied that the larger public interest justified the disclosure of such information,” justice Balakrishnan stated.

According to RTI activist Arvind Kejriwal, there are lot of allegations of corruption against the ex CJI and hence, the information ought to be in public domain. “This is purely a matter of public interest,” said Kejriwal.

Venkatesh Nayak of commonwealth human rights initiative (CHRI), an NGO working for the RTI act said, “The fact that the public authority asked for Balakrishnan’s permission to reveal the details, show that the public authority thought it as a fit case for disclosure.

He added that since the Supreme Court has already ruled that the judges of the apex court should declare their assets, there should be no harm in disclosing the IT return details.

Income tax authorities in Kochi have declined to reveal the details of the tax returns filed by national human rights commission (NHRC) chairperson justice KG Balakrishnan and 7 family members on an application filed under the right to information (RTI) act, after the former chief justice of India (CJI) objected to the disclosures.

The RTI application was filed by Dr T Balachandran following allegations of wealth disproportionate to known sources of income against the family members of Justice Balakrishnan.

The applicant had sought information and documents certified copies of the IT returns submitted by Justice Balakrishnan for the financial years 2005-06 to 2009-10, details of investigation and enquiry conducted by the department against him and his son, KB Pradeep, two daughters -- Sony and Rani, sons-in law MJ Benny and PV Sreenijan and brother KG Bhaskaran and certified copies of the reports and related documents with file notes relating to the investigation and enquiry conducted by the IT department if any.

The applicant's counsel, advocate D B Binu, said they would be filing an appeal against the order within 30 days.