The Madhya Pradesh High Court, while upholding an order of Central Information Commission (CIC), has observed that a woman had the right to know the remuneration of her husband.
A High Court bench of Justices SK Seth and Nandita Dubey made the observation while hearing the petition of Sunita Jain who had filed a petition seeking maintenance from her husband in which she alleged that, as a very high officer in the Telecommunication Department (BSNL), her husband Pawan Kumar Jain is drawing salary more than Rs. 2,25,000 per month. She sought this information from BSNL through the RTI, which was denied. After a few rounds of litigations, the matter reached the Central Information Commission, which passed the order under Section 4(1)(b)(x) of the Right to Information Act directing BSNL to comply with the provisions of the Act by making information about remuneration available on the public domain.
Her husband challenged the CIC order before a single bench of the MP high court which set aside the CIC order in March 2015.
The High Court bench of Justices SK Seth and Nandita Dubey stated that the wife couldn’t be denied this information by considering her a third party.
While setting aside the single bench order, the double bench, in an order on May 15, allowed the writ appeal and upheld the CIC order.