IN THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA

CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION

CONTEMPT PETITION (C) NO. _________OF 20__
IN
TRANSFER PETITION (CIVIL) NO. __ OF 20__

IN THE MATTER OF:

MR. _______________________ APPLICANT
NEW DELHI

VERSUS

M/S __________ LTD ALLEGED

CONTEMNOR
THROUGH ITS GENERAL MANAGER
NEW DELHI, DELHI

AND IN THE MATTER OF:

M/S _______________________ LTD PETITIONER
NEW DELHI, DELHI

VERSUS

MR. _______________________ RESPONDENT

NEW DELHI

APPLICATION ON BEHALF OF THE APPLICANTS U/S 11 AND 12

OF THE CONTEMPT OF COURTS ACT, 1971 READ WITH RULE 3
(c) OF THE RULES TO REGULATE PROCEEDINGS FOR CONTEMPT
OF THE SUPREME COURT, 1975 FOR INITIATING CONTEMPT
PROCEEDINGS AGAINST THE ABOVE-NAMED ALLEGED
CONTEMNOR FOR NON-COMPLIANCE OF THE JUDGMENT/
ORDER DATED _____ OF THIS HON'BLE COURT IN THE AFORE-
MENTIONED TRANSFER PETITION.

To,
The Hon'ble the Chief Justice of India
And his other Companion Judges of
The Hon'ble Supreme Court of India.

Humble Application of the Applicants above named:

MOST RESPECTFULLY SHEWETH:-

1. That the applicant above-named is filing the instant

application seeking initiation of contempt proceedings against
the above-named alleged contemnor for willfully disobeyed the
specific directions of this Hon'ble Court issued vide order dated
_____, in Transfer Petition (Civil) No. __ of 20__ captioned as
______Ltd v. Mr. ______________ wherein the Reserve Bank
of India had challenged the order dated ______; passed by the
Central Information Commission directing the ___ Ltd to
disclose information as desired by the Applicant. This Hon'ble
Court considered the case for disclosure of information sought
for by the applicant under the Right to Information Act, 2005
from the Reserve Bank of India which was vehemently opposed
and denied by the banks. This Hon'ble Court while directing
disclosure of such information under the RTI Act observed and
held as under:

"The submission of the ___ Ltd that exceptions be carved out

of the RTI Act regime in order to accommodate provisions of
___ Act. RTI Act, 2005 contains a clear provision (Section 22)
by virtue of which it overrides all other Acts including Official
Secrets Act. Thus, notwithstanding anything to the contrary
contained in any other law like ___ Act or Banking Regulation
Act, the RTI Act, 2005 shall prevail insofar as transparency and
access to information is concerned. Moreover, the RTI Act
2005, being a later law, specifically brought in to usher
transparency and to transform the way official business is
conducted, would have to override all earlier practices and laws
in order to achieve its objective. The only exceptions to access
to information are contained in RTI Act itself in Section 8".

"____Ltd is supposed to uphold public interest and not the

interest of individual banks. ___Ltd is clearly not in any
fiduciary relationship with any bank. __Ltd has no legal duty to
maximize the benefit of any public sector or private sector
bank, and thus there is no relationship of 'trust' between them.
__Ltd has a statutory duty to uphold the interest of the public
at large, the depositors, the country's economy and the
banking sector. Thus, __Ltd ought to act with transparency and
not hide information that might embarrass individual banks. It
is duty bound to comply with the provisions of the RTI Act and
disclose the information sought by the respondents herein".

"The baseless and unsubstantiated argument of the __Ltd that

the disclosure would hurt the economic interest of the country
is totally misconceived. In the impugned order, the CIC has
given several reasons to state why the disclosure of the
information sought by the respondents would hugely serve
public interest, and non-disclosure would be significantly
detrimental to public interest and not in the economic interest
of India. __Ltd's argument that if people, who are sovereign,
are made aware of the irregularities being committed by the
banks then the country's economic security would be
endangered, is not only absurd but is equally misconceived and
baseless".

A copy of the order dated ____ passed by this Hon'ble Court in

Transfer Petition (Civil) No. __ of 20__ is annexed and marked
as ANNEXURE A-1. (Pgs. ).

2. It is pertinent to mention at the outset that this Hon'ble

Court out-rightly rejected the submissions made by the ______
that the statutory provisions of confidentiality in the
_________ Act and the Credit Information Companies
(Regulation) Act, 2005 would be repealed or overruled by the
Right to Information Act, 2005 if the banking institutions are
forced under law to furnish the information under the RTI Act.
This Hon'ble Court after taking note of the provisions under the
___________Act, the Reserve Bank of India, the ________Act,
2005, and the Preamble to the Right to Information Act, 2005
categorically observed and held that:

"The CIC has considered elaborately the information sought for

and passed orders which in our opinion do not suffer from any
error of law, irrationality or arbitrariness. We have, therefore,
given our anxious consideration to the matter and came to the
conclusion that the Central Information Commissioner has
passed the impugned orders giving valid reasons and the said
orders, therefore, need no interference by this Court rafter
considering the submissions".
Information sought by the Applicant:

3. That the applicant had filed an application dated _____

seeking information from the Department of _____ Ltd
regarding the loss caused to the nation in the _______ case.
A copy of the RTI application dated _____ addressed to the
____________ is annexed and marked as ANNEXURE A-2.
(Pgs. ).

4. That the _____ Ltd vide letter dated _____ and _____
denied to furnish most of the information sought by the
applicant on the gins to findings of Annual Financial Inspection
(AFI) and Scrutiny of ____ conducted under section __ of the
____ Act, ___ and action taken thereon. Disclosure of such
information received in a fiduciary capacity will prejudicially
affect the economic interest of the state and hence is exempt
from disclosure under section 8 (1) (a), (d), and (e) of the RTI
Act, 2005. A copy of the reply dated _____ by the ____Ltd and
a copy of the reply dated ____ by the ______ is annexed and
marked as ANNEXURE A-3. (Pgs. ) and ANNEXURE A-4.(Pgs. )

5. That the applicant preferred first appeal challenging the

order dated ________ and ________ passed by the ______
vide first appeal dated ________ which was rejected by the
First Appellate Authority vide an order dated ________.
Thereafter, the Applicant challenged the said order before the
CIC vide Appeal No. ________; dated ________ wherein the
CIC vide an order dated ________ observed and held as under:

"The PIO has denied information on queries 1 and 2 on the

basis of Section 8(1)(e) of the RTI Act. This was upheld by the
FAA which further observed that information relating to MTM
position of banks are obtained by ___ for discharging the
regulatory an supervisory functions and are held by ___ in
fiduciary capacity.

In the present matter, it is clear that while banks may have

given information to ___ in confidence or in trust, there does
not appear to be any duty cast upon ____ to act in their
benefit. ____ being a regulator of the banking sector
obtains/maintains such information in regulatory/ supervisory
capacity. Therefore, there is no element of choice as such
available to banks. There does not appear to be a creation of
any fiduciary relationship between ____ and the banks, as laid
down above. Therefore, the PIO's contention that information
in queries 1 and 2 is exempt under Section 8(1)(e) of the RTI
Act is rejected. Moreover, for the reasons mentioned above- a
larger public interest would be served by disclosing this
information under Section 8(2) of the RTI Act. In view of the
same, this Bench is of the considered opinion that whether
information sought in query 1 and 2 is exempted under Section
8(1)(e) of the RTI Act, Section 8(2) of the RTI Act would
mandate disclosure of the information sought.

Further, as regards queries 9 and 10, the CPIO has not claimed
any exemption either in the initial reply or subsequently for
denying the information".

The CIC while allowing the appeal directed the CPIO, FED to
provide the relevant information before _____. A copy of the
order dated ______; passed by the CIC; in Appeal No. ______is
annexed and marked as ANNEXURE A-5. (Pgs. )

6. That against the CIC's order dated ______ the ___ filed a
Writ Petition (Civil) No. __ of ______ before the Hon'ble High
Court of Delhi praying for quashing of the order dated ______
passed by the CIC, Delhi. Due to numerous orders passed by
the CIC as well as by the Hon'ble High Court across the country
directing the Company to furnish information sought by the
applicants under the RTI Act, the ______ preferred Transfer
Petitions before this Hon'ble Court. The Transfer cases were
allowed by this Hon'ble Court vide an order dated ______ . This
Hon'ble Court vide an order dated ______has held that it is
mandatory for the Company to furnish the information sought
by the applicants and directed the ______ furnish the same.

7. That the Company on ______ replied to the first information

sought by the Applicant wherein the ______ was asked to
furnish information regarding "Before the ______ Court,
Company has filed an affidavit stating that the total mark to
market losses on account of ___________ is to the tune of
more than Rs. _____ Crores. Please give bank wise breakup of
the ___ Losses". The ___ vide the said letter replied by
annexing the relevant portion of the affidavit filed by the ___
before the Hon'ble ____ High Court in WP (Crl.) No. ___ of
____ and denied loss caused more than ______ crore on
account of currency derivative. A copy of the letter dated
_______; by the Company India is annexed and marked as
ANNEXURE A-6. (Pgs. )

8. That the Respondent Company have deliberately and willfully

disobeyed the specific directions issued vide order dated
______, in the captioned transfer petition, directing the
Respondents to furnish the information sought by the Applicant
from the Company as contained in the RTI application dated
______. The ___ till date has not furnished the information
sought by the Applicants and therefore have committed
deliberate and willful defiance of this Court's order.

In view of the abovementioned facts it is respectfully

submitted that this Hon'ble Court may be pleased to:

PRAYERS
a) Initiate contempt proceeding against the alleged
contemnor/respondents for willfully and deliberately
disobeying the direction of this Hon'ble Court vide judgment
dated ____; passed in the Transfer Petition (Civil) __ of 20__;

b) Pass any other or further order/s as this Hon'ble Court may

deem fit and proper in the facts and circumstances of the case.

FILED BY

_______________________

ADVOCATE FOR THE APPLICANT

Drawn by: _________, Advocate

New Delhi

Dated: ________
Section 12 in the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971

12. Punishment for contempt of court.-

(1) Save as otherwise expressly provided in this Act or in any

other law, a contempt of court may be punished with simple
imprisonment for a term which may extend to six months, or
with fine which may extend to two thousand rupees, or with
both: -

(1) Save as otherwise expressly provided in this Act or in any

other law, a contempt of court may be punished with simple
imprisonment for a term which may extend to six months, or
with fine which may extend to two thousand rupees, or with
both:

Provided that the accused may be discharged or the

punishment awarded may be remitted on apology being made
to the satisfaction of the court.

Explanation.-An apology shall not be rejected merely on the

ground that it is qualified or conditional if the accused makes it
bona fide.

(2) Notwithstanding anything contained in any other law for

the time being in force, no court shall impose a sentence in
excess of that specified in sub-section (1) for any contempt
either in respect of itself or of a court subordinate to it.

(3) Notwithstanding anything contained in this section, where

a person is found guilty of a civil contempt, the court, if it
considers that a fine will not meet the ends of justice and that
a sentence of imprisonment is necessary shall, instead of
sentencing him to simple imprisonment, direct that he be
detained in a civil prison for such period not exceeding six
months as it may think fit.

(4) Where the person found guilty of contempt of court in

respect of any undertaking given to a court is a company, every
person who, at the time the contempt was committed, was in
charge of, and was responsible to, the company for the conduct
of business of the company, as well as the company, shall be
deemed to be guilty of the contempt and the punishment may
be enforced, with the leave of the court, by the detention in
civil prison of each such person: Provided that nothing
contained in this sub-section shall render any such person
liable to such punishment if he proves that the contempt was
committed without his knowledge or that he exercised all due
diligence to prevent its commission.

(5) Notwithstanding anything contained in sub-section (4),

where the contempt of court referred to therein has been
committed by a company and it is proved that the contempt has
been committed with the consent or connivance of, or is
attributable to any neglect on the part of, any director,
manager, secretary or other officer of the company, such
director, manager, secretary or other officer shall also be
deemed to be guilty of the contempt and the punishment may
be enforced, with the leave of the court, by the detention in
civil prison of such director, manager, secretary or other
officer.

Explanation.-For the purposes of sub-sections (4) and (5),-

(a) "company" means any body corporate and includes a firm

or other association of individuals; and

(b) "director", in relation to a firm, means a partner in the firm.

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA

CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION
CONTEMPT PETITION (C) NO. _________OF 20__
IN
TRANSFER PETITION (CIVIL) NO. __ OF 20__

IN THE MATTER OF:

MR. _______________________ APPLICANT
NEW DELHI
VERSUS

M/S __________ LTD ALLEGED

CONTEMNOR
THROUGH ITS GENERAL MANAGER
NEW DELHI, DELHI

AND IN THE MATTER OF:

M/S _______________________ LTD PETITIONER
NEW DELHI, DELHI

VERSUS

MR. _______________________ RESPONDENT

NEW DELHI

APPLICATION ON BEHALF OF THE APPLICANTS U/S 11 AND 12

OF THE CONTEMPT OF COURTS ACT, 1971 READ WITH RULE 3
(c) OF THE RULES TO REGULATE PROCEEDINGS FOR CONTEMPT
OF THE SUPREME COURT, 1975 FOR INITIATING CONTEMPT
PROCEEDINGS AGAINST THE ABOVE-NAMED ALLEGED
CONTEMNOR FOR NON-COMPLIANCE OF THE JUDGMENT/
ORDER DATED _____ OF THIS HON'BLE COURT IN THE AFORE-
MENTIONED TRANSFER PETITION.

To,
The Hon'ble the Chief Justice of India
And his other Companion Judges of
The Hon'ble Supreme Court of India.

Humble Application of the Applicants above named:

MOST RESPECTFULLY SHEWETH:-

1. That the applicant above-named is filing the instant application

seeking initiation of contempt proceedings against the above-named
alleged contemnor for willfully disobeyed the specific directions of this
Hon'ble Court issued vide order dated _____, in Transfer Petition
(Civil) No. __ of 20__ captioned as ______Ltd v. Mr. ______________
wherein the Reserve Bank of India had challenged the order dated
______; passed by the Central Information Commission directing the
___ Ltd to disclose information as desired by the Applicant. This
Hon'ble Court considered the case for disclosure of information sought
for by the applicant under the Right to Information Act, 2005 from the
Reserve Bank of India which was vehemently opposed and denied by
the banks. This Hon'ble Court while directing disclosure of such
information under the RTI Act observed and held as under:

"The submission of the ___ Ltd that exceptions be carved out of the
RTI Act regime in order to accommodate provisions of ___ Act. RTI
Act, 2005 contains a clear provision (Section 22) by virtue of which it
overrides all other Acts including Official Secrets Act. Thus,
notwithstanding anything to the contrary contained in any other law
like ___ Act or Banking Regulation Act, the RTI Act, 2005 shall prevail
insofar as transparency and access to information is concerned.
Moreover, the RTI Act 2005, being a later law, specifically brought in
to usher transparency and to transform the way official business is
conducted, would have to override all earlier practices and laws in
order to achieve its objective. The only exceptions to access to
information are contained in RTI Act itself in Section 8".

"____Ltd is supposed to uphold public interest and not the interest of

individual banks. ___Ltd is clearly not in any fiduciary relationship with
any bank. __Ltd has no legal duty to maximize the benefit of any
public sector or private sector bank, and thus there is no relationship
of 'trust' between them. __Ltd has a statutory duty to uphold the
interest of the public at large, the depositors, the country's economy
and the banking sector. Thus, __Ltd ought to act with transparency
and not hide information that might embarrass individual banks. It is
duty bound to comply with the provisions of the RTI Act and disclose
the information sought by the respondents herein".

"The baseless and unsubstantiated argument of the __Ltd that the

disclosure would hurt the economic interest of the country is totally
misconceived. In the impugned order, the CIC has given several
reasons to state why the disclosure of the information sought by the
respondents would hugely serve public interest, and non-disclosure
would be significantly detrimental to public interest and not in the
economic interest of India. __Ltd's argument that if people, who are
sovereign, are made aware of the irregularities being committed by
the banks then the country's economic security would be endangered,
is not only absurd but is equally misconceived and baseless".
A copy of the order dated ____ passed by this Hon'ble Court in
Transfer Petition (Civil) No. __ of 20__ is annexed and marked as
ANNEXURE A-1. (Pgs. ).

2. It is pertinent to mention at the outset that this Hon'ble Court out-

rightly rejected the submissions made by the ______ that the
statutory provisions of confidentiality in the _________ Act and the
Credit Information Companies (Regulation) Act, 2005 would be
repealed or overruled by the Right to Information Act, 2005 if the
banking institutions are forced under law to furnish the information
under the RTI Act. This Hon'ble Court after taking note of the
provisions under the ___________Act, the Reserve Bank of India, the
________Act, 2005, and the Preamble to the Right to Information Act,
2005 categorically observed and held that:

"The CIC has considered elaborately the information sought for and
passed orders which in our opinion do not suffer from any error of law,
irrationality or arbitrariness. We have, therefore, given our anxious
consideration to the matter and came to the conclusion that the
Central Information Commissioner has passed the impugned orders
giving valid reasons and the said orders, therefore, need no
interference by this Court rafter considering the submissions".

Information sought by the Applicant:

3. That the applicant had filed an application dated _____ seeking

information from the Department of _____ Ltd regarding the loss
caused to the nation in the _______ case.
A copy of the RTI application dated _____ addressed to the
____________ is annexed and marked as ANNEXURE A-2. (Pgs. ).

4. That the _____ Ltd vide letter dated _____ and _____ denied to
furnish most of the information sought by the applicant on the gins to
findings of Annual Financial Inspection (AFI) and Scrutiny of ____
conducted under section __ of the ____ Act, ___ and action taken
thereon. Disclosure of such information received in a fiduciary capacity
will prejudicially affect the economic interest of the state and hence is
exempt from disclosure under section 8 (1) (a), (d), and (e) of the RTI
Act, 2005. A copy of the reply dated _____ by the ____Ltd and a copy
of the reply dated ____ by the ______ is annexed and marked as
ANNEXURE A-3. (Pgs. ) and ANNEXURE A-4.(Pgs. )

5. That the applicant preferred first appeal challenging the order dated
________ and ________ passed by the ______ vide first appeal dated
________ which was rejected by the First Appellate Authority vide an
order dated ________. Thereafter, the Applicant challenged the said
order before the CIC vide Appeal No. ________; dated ________
wherein the CIC vide an order dated ________ observed and held as
under:

"The PIO has denied information on queries 1 and 2 on the basis of

Section 8(1)(e) of the RTI Act. This was upheld by the FAA which
further observed that information relating to MTM position of banks
are obtained by ___ for discharging the regulatory an supervisory
functions and are held by ___ in fiduciary capacity.

In the present matter, it is clear that while banks may have given
information to ___ in confidence or in trust, there does not appear to
be any duty cast upon ____ to act in their benefit. ____ being a
regulator of the banking sector obtains/maintains such information in
regulatory/ supervisory capacity. Therefore, there is no element of
choice as such available to banks. There does not appear to be a
creation of any fiduciary relationship between ____ and the banks, as
laid down above. Therefore, the PIO's contention that information in
queries 1 and 2 is exempt under Section 8(1)(e) of the RTI Act is
rejected. Moreover, for the reasons mentioned above- a larger public
interest would be served by disclosing this information under Section
8(2) of the RTI Act. In view of the same, this Bench is of the
considered opinion that whether information sought in query 1 and 2
is exempted under Section 8(1)(e) of the RTI Act, Section 8(2) of the
RTI Act would mandate disclosure of the information sought.

Further, as regards queries 9 and 10, the CPIO has not claimed any
exemption either in the initial reply or subsequently for denying the
information".

The CIC while allowing the appeal directed the CPIO, FED to provide
the relevant information before _____. A copy of the order dated
______; passed by the CIC; in Appeal No. ______is annexed and
marked as ANNEXURE A-5. (Pgs. )
6. That against the CIC's order dated ______ the ___ filed a Writ
Petition (Civil) No. __ of ______ before the Hon'ble High Court of Delhi
praying for quashing of the order dated ______ passed by the CIC,
Delhi. Due to numerous orders passed by the CIC as well as by the
Hon'ble High Court across the country directing the Company to
furnish information sought by the applicants under the RTI Act, the
______ preferred Transfer Petitions before this Hon'ble Court. The
Transfer cases were allowed by this Hon'ble Court vide an order dated
______ . This Hon'ble Court vide an order dated ______has held that
it is mandatory for the Company to furnish the information sought by
the applicants and directed the ______ furnish the same.

7. That the Company on ______ replied to the first information sought

by the Applicant wherein the ______ was asked to furnish information
regarding "Before the ______ Court, Company has filed an affidavit
stating that the total mark to market losses on account of
___________ is to the tune of more than Rs. _____ Crores. Please
give bank wise breakup of the ___ Losses". The ___ vide the said
letter replied by annexing the relevant portion of the affidavit filed by
the ___ before the Hon'ble ____ High Court in WP (Crl.) No. ___ of
____ and denied loss caused more than ______ crore on account of
currency derivative. A copy of the letter dated _______; by the
Company India is annexed and marked as ANNEXURE A-6. (Pgs. )

8. That the Respondent Company have deliberately and willfully

disobeyed the specific directions issued vide order dated ______, in
the captioned transfer petition, directing the Respondents to furnish
the information sought by the Applicant from the Company as
contained in the RTI application dated ______. The ___ till date has
not furnished the information sought by the Applicants and therefore
have committed deliberate and willful defiance of this Court's order.

In view of the abovementioned facts it is respectfully submitted that

this Hon'ble Court may be pleased to:

PRAYERS
a) Initiate contempt proceeding against the alleged
contemnor/respondents for willfully and deliberately disobeying the
direction of this Hon'ble Court vide judgment dated ____; passed in
the Transfer Petition (Civil) __ of 20__;
b) Pass any other or further order/s as this Hon'ble Court may deem fit
and proper in the facts and circumstances of the case.

FILED BY

_______________________

ADVOCATE FOR THE APPLICANT

Drawn by: _________, Advocate

New Delhi

Dated: ________

Section 12 in the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971

12. Punishment for contempt of court.-

(1) Save as otherwise expressly provided in this Act or in any other

law, a contempt of court may be punished with simple imprisonment
for a term which may extend to six months, or with fine which may
extend to two thousand rupees, or with both: -

(1) Save as otherwise expressly provided in this Act or in any other

law, a contempt of court may be punished with simple imprisonment
for a term which may extend to six months, or with fine which may
extend to two thousand rupees, or with both:

Provided that the accused may be discharged or the punishment

awarded may be remitted on apology being made to the satisfaction of
the court.

Explanation.-An apology shall not be rejected merely on the ground

that it is qualified or conditional if the accused makes it bona fide.

(2) Notwithstanding anything contained in any other law for the time
being in force, no court shall impose a sentence in excess of that
specified in sub-section (1) for any contempt either in respect of itself
or of a court subordinate to it.
(3) Notwithstanding anything contained in this section, where a person
is found guilty of a civil contempt, the court, if it considers that a fine
will not meet the ends of justice and that a sentence of imprisonment
is necessary shall, instead of sentencing him to simple imprisonment,
direct that he be detained in a civil prison for such period not
exceeding six months as it may think fit.

(4) Where the person found guilty of contempt of court in respect of

any undertaking given to a court is a company, every person who, at
the time the contempt was committed, was in charge of, and was
responsible to, the company for the conduct of business of the
company, as well as the company, shall be deemed to be guilty of the
contempt and the punishment may be enforced, with the leave of the
court, by the detention in civil prison of each such person: Provided
that nothing contained in this sub-section shall render any such person
liable to such punishment if he proves that the contempt was
committed without his knowledge or that he exercised all due diligence
to prevent its commission.

(5) Notwithstanding anything contained in sub-section (4), where the

contempt of court referred to therein has been committed by a
company and it is proved that the contempt has been committed with
the consent or connivance of, or is attributable to any neglect on the
part of, any director, manager, secretary or other officer of the
company, such director, manager, secretary or other officer shall also
be deemed to be guilty of the contempt and the punishment may be
enforced, with the leave of the court, by the detention in civil prison of
such director, manager, secretary or other officer.

Explanation.-For the purposes of sub-sections (4) and (5),-

(a) "company" means any body corporate and includes a firm or other
association of individuals; and

(b) "director", in relation to a firm, means a partner in the firm.