1. The appellant filed an application under the Right to Information Act, 2005 (RTI Act) before the Central Public Information Officer (CPIO), Bank of Baroda, Zonal Office, Sansad Marg, New Delhi seeking information on three points pertaining to the naming rights of Sikandarpur Metro Station, including, inter-alia, (i) a copy of file noting in which the decision of buying the above said naming rights was taken and (ii) a copy of agreement signed between the bank and Delhi Metro Rail Corporation in this regard.
2. The appellant filed a second appeal before the Commission on the grounds that the CPIO denied information under Section 8(1)(d) of the RTI Act. The appellant requested the Commission to direct the CPIO to provide the information to him as the same is being sought in larger public interest.
Hearing:
3. The appellant was not present despite notice. The respondent Shri P. Srinivas Rao, Asstt. General Manager, Bank of Baroda, Baroda Corporate Centre, Mumbai attended the hearing through videoconferencing.
4. The respondent submitted that in response to the RTI application a point wise reply was provided to the appellant vide letter dated 02.05.2017. The appellant has sought information pertaining to the naming rights of Sikandarpur Metro Station. He stated that the said naming rights are not owned by DMRC. Hence, the bank purchased the naming rights from a third party. Thus, there is no agreement between the bank and DMRC in this regard. He further stated that the file noting pertaining to the naming rights contains, inter-alia, the marketing strategy of the bank, the bank's price discovery mechanism which are intellectual property of the bank. Moreover, the bank has purchased the naming rights through negotiations, for a limited period, the disclosure of which would harm the competitive position of the bank especially for future purchase of the naming rights of the Sikandarpur Metro Station. Hence, the disclosure of the information sought for is exempted under Section 8(1)(d) of the RTI Act.
DECISION:
5. The Commission, after hearing the submissions of the respondent and perusing the records, observes that a point wise reply was provided to the appellant vide letter dated 02.05.2017. However, on point no. 2 of the RTI application the respondent stated that as no agreement was signed between the bank and DMRC and hence, the information sought is not available. The Commission directs the CPIO to provide a copy of the file noting as sought vide point no. 1 of the RTI application after severing information which relates to commercial confidence, trade secrets or intellectual property, the disclosure of which would harm the competitive position of the bank and hence, is exempted from disclosure under Section 8(1)(d) of the RTI Act, to the appellant within a period of four weeks from the date of receipt of a copy of this order under intimation to the Commission.
6. With the above observations, the appeal is disposed of.
7. Copy of the decision be provided free of cost to the parties.