New Delhi, April 7 The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) has said that it has complied with the CIC order, which had directed it to provide reasons for denying information to an RTI application seeking to know whether some vendors who had applied for cluster tenders had declared that they were facing cases registered by CBI and ED.
In a statement on Monday, IRCTC said that the Central Information Commission (CIC) directive has been complied with by providing a detailed response to the RTI applicant.
"Since the information sought by the applicant was exempted under section 8(d) of the RTI Act, IRCTC, vide its reply dated July 16, 2024, submitted that the information sought is exempted under the RTI Act. Furthermore, the matter went to the Hon'ble CIC, and the Hon'ble CIC, in its order dated January 7, 2026, advised IRCTC to provide a fresh, detailed response to the applicant. This has been complied with by providing a detailed response to the applicant," it said.
The statement further said, "It would also be appropriate to mention that the applicant is an unsuccessful bidder, and the matter concerns other participating bidders, thereby indicating the competitive nature of the process."
The CIC had directed IRCTC to provide "cogent reasons" for denying information about whether applicants who had applied for cluster tenders had declared that CBI and ED had registered cases against them.
"The Commission believes that a mere or mechanical reference to an exemption clause, without explaining its applicability to the information sought, does not constitute a valid or meaningful response under the RTI Act," it said.
The CIC, which is the highest adjudicating body for hearing RTI-related complaints and appeals under the transparency law, stated that it is well established that denial of information under the RTI Act must be supported by cogent reasons, and the burden of proving the applicability of an exemption lies squarely with the public authority.
"Accordingly, the CPIO is directed to re-examine the RTI application dated June 11, 2024, and provide a fresh, detailed response to the Appellant. These directions should be complied with within a period of four weeks from the date of receipt of this order," the CIC said in its order.