Canara Bank wrote off Rs 47,310Cr in 8 years, but recovered just 19%

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When a common borrower in our country defaults, the banks publish his name and all details through advertisements in newspapers but in numerous cases of big defaulters, names are being hidden under the privacy cause by most banks. Canara Bank is no exception, as it has written off bad loans worth thousands of crore of rupees and recovered paltry amounts from big defaulters.

During the past eight-year period from FY12-13 to FY19-20, Canara Bank wrote off a total of Rs 47,310 crore while recovering just 19 per cent or Rs 8,901 crore from defaulters. The Bank also refused to share this information as well as names of defaulters under the Right to Information (RTI) Act by using vague reasons of privacy for not sharing information like names of big defaulters with a bad loan of Rs 100 crore and above.

In the reply to the RTI, the bank says, “Information sought is the personal information of the concerned and if disclosed would invade the privacy of those concerned and its disclosure does not have any relationship with public interest or activity and is exempted under section 8(1)(j) of the RTI Act.”

In several judgements, the Central Information Commission (CIC) had ruled that to qualify for the exemption under section 8(1)(j) of the RTI Act, the information must satisfy certain criteria, such as personal information and public interest.

Hence Section 8(1)(j) of the RTI Act cannot be applied when the information concerns institutions, organisations or corporates.