New Delhi: The Central Information Commission today held that the details of a lunch hosted by Congress president Sonia Gandhi last year can be withheld from disclosure as no ministry or government department had paid any bills for it.
The commission gave this order while disposing off an RTI appeal filed by an applicant named Aseem Takyar who sought information about the lunch organised by Mrs Gandhi for UPA allies on July 18 last year, ahead of the presidential election.
The lunch was organised at the Ashoka Hotel in the national capital. The hotel had refused to disclose the details saying the information was of the nature of commercial confidence and disclosing payments made by its guests would compromise its market position.
The hotel said it is a commercial enterprise and has to maintain and protect the commercial confidence of its customers if it has to be successful in the market.
It cannot be expected to disclose the bills of various clients and guests as the payments were not made by any government department or ministry.
"In any case, in view of the fact that the respondent has very categorically mentioned that the above lunch was not paid for by any government ministry or department, therefore there is no further information to be disclosed. The appeal is disposed off accordingly," Chief Information Commissioner Satyananda Mishra said.
The commission gave this order while disposing off an RTI appeal filed by an applicant named Aseem Takyar who sought information about the lunch organised by Mrs Gandhi for UPA allies on July 18 last year, ahead of the presidential election.
The lunch was organised at the Ashoka Hotel in the national capital. The hotel had refused to disclose the details saying the information was of the nature of commercial confidence and disclosing payments made by its guests would compromise its market position.
It cannot be expected to disclose the bills of various clients and guests as the payments were not made by any government department or ministry.
Advertisement
Advertisement
COMMENTS
Advertisement
Fighting And Kisses: 5 Big Takeaways From Trump's Speech Amid Health Concerns, Biden To Make Announcement On Re-Election Bid: Report Video: Trump's Unique Tribute To Firefighter Who Died In Pennsylvania Shooting Windows Computers Lead To 'Blue Screen Of Death' Due To CrowdStrike Error In 1st Statement After Outage, CrowdStrike CEO Says... Massive Worldwide Microsoft Outage: Flights, Markets, Stock Exchange Down Law Will Take Its Course: Puja Khedkar Breaks Silence On Allegations "Atmanirbharta" Cannot Be At Cost Of Nation's Defence: Air Force Vice Chief CrowdStrike CEO Says "Deeply Sorry" For Tech Outage: Report Track Latest News Live on NDTV.com and get news updates from India and around the world.