New Delhi: Delhi High Court on Tuesday indicated that the PM Cares Fund, despite being a govt entity, is entitled to privacy protection granted to third-party entities under the RTI Act.Hearing a challenge to the denial of information on the fund under the act, the bench of Chief Justice DK Upadhyaya and Justice Tejas Karia said: “Even if it (the fund) is state, merely because it is state, does it lose its right to privacy? Merely because there is an entity discharging certain public functions, or if it is managed, supervised and controlled by govt, can it be denied such a right to privacy?” The remark came while dealing with an appeal filed by an RTI applicant against a single judge’s order last year. The judge had set aside an order of the Central Information Commission that had directed the income tax authorities to disclose information about the PM CARES Fund. The judge said information was sought from the Central Public Information Officer (CPIO), not from PM CARES. “Since the information sought… relates to a third party, the PM CARES Fund ought to have been heard,” the judge said.RTI applicant Girish Mittal had filed the plea.
