Whispers Forum

The appellant sought for the rank, name and marks secured by candidates for Labour Enforcement Officer separately in RT and interview and the total aggregate rank wise. On appeal, the FAA directed to furnish appropriate reply on this point. On second appeal, after the perusal of the FAA’s order, the CIC observed that the directions for disclosure of information were passed without application of mind, although the appellant had sought personal details including educational qualification of other candidates. The FAA’s order was set aside by the CIC regarding providing the educational details of candidates. It was held that personal details/ information of other candidates is held by the UPSC in a fiduciary relationship and is exempted under section 8 (1) (j) of the RTI Act, 2025.
Comments
Information about the educational qualification or the marks scored by the other candidates is often an issue raised in an application filed under the RTI Act. Understanding privacy and respecting the personal information is a responsibility entrusted to the PIO.
Citation: Rahul Kumar Pathak v. Union Public Service Commission, Second Appeal No. CIC/UPSCM/A/2024/650667; Date of Decision: 25.08.2025
Dr Anuradha Verma (dranuradhaverma@yahoo.co.in) is a RTI Consultant currently working with IIM Vishakhapatnam. She has co-authored the books PIO’s Guide to RTI and Right to Information – Law and Practice. Her weekly article is being published since 2008 on this site. She offers consultancy on RTI matters and third party audit to individuals / organisations. Her other articles can be read at the website of RTI Foundation at the link https://www.rtifoundationofindia.com

Government of India has framed travel rules for tour-- both domestic and international-- for its employees wherein approval of competent authority is obtained before proceeding or after completing journey for official purpose. However, exemption has been provided for the President, PM, Governors, CMs keeping in view their status. However, it appears that this exemption is being misused as per whims and fancy of incumbents to serve more a political or private purpose and less a public purpose. No social audit is done in CAG reports for scrutiny of Parliament or Legislative Assembly for such tours. When these expenses are borne out of public exchequer, such an exercise must be undertaken to know as to what public purpose has been served for undertaking such tours. Data is available with the Government to find out whether frequent official foreign tours benefited the country or a State even from an administrative point of view, they do not violate any rules governing travels.
Raj Kumar Thakur

BJP-SAD-BSP alliance is a must to win the 2027 Punjab assembly election. BJP must contest in 51 seats, SAD must contest in 51 seats while the BSP must contest in 15 seats.
M G Snu
No AAP or Congress cadre in UP seat
Neither AAP nor Congress has any cadre on any seat out of the 403 in UP.
Bipin
Get ready for Yogi 3.0
Get ready for Yogi 3.0. If Akhilesh or Congress decides to part ways, BJP will sweep the UP 2027 polls by a margin even greater than in 2017. SP will find it difficult to cross even 50, while Congress and the rest will be the big zeros.
Azam

The Deputy PM must be from an alliance party not from BJP. They are cheating common people in the name of caste and religion. We must wake up.
Syed Mahmood
Prabhu Ram will punish wrongdoers
The whole family who has stolen the assets of Prabhu Ram Lala Birajman and other temples will die of rare incurable diseases .... If a Govt. can come by using His sentiment, then the entire Govt. will also be toppled in this sentiment. He is Omnipresent... My cutie prabhu Ram Lala is Birajman everywhere in this universe... He will do justice to this.
Shankha Maiti

The government dismantled the core secretarial team of the Union Minister for Environment, Forest, and Climate Change (Bhupendra Yadav).
Sreedhar
China is Indonesia’s largest trading partner
China is Indonesia’s largest trading partner and a primary source of foreign direct investment. Indonesia relies heavily on Beijing for massive infrastructure projects, funding, and the development of its booming nickel and critical mineral processing industries. It's taking Brahmos deal with port access to Sabang in Sumatra to India to get a better deal from China... Though it's only following US, carrot and stick policy to get reduction in tariffs from 32% TO 19% TO 11%. India has nothing to claim here, all part of US- China game play.
Shredder

The seat-sharing between SP and Congress in Uttar Pradesh is a tricky situation that might upset the carts. SP chief Akhilesh Yadav would for sure know better. No way would he repeat 2022 mistake or RJDs 2025 mistake
Akanksha
Not helping Congress
That will not help as Congress & Rahul have a dubious record of sinking parties with which it has entered into a poll alliance.
Dhiraj
Equal seat sharing!
Equal seat sharing..?? No, no, don't spread fake news. Maybe negotiations are undergoing seat sharing. If they contest on equal seat share basis, then it'll be beneficial for Yogi.
IGN

The certified copies of RBI Master Direction Money Changing Activities RBI/FED/2015-16/17 FED and Master Direction No. 3/2015-16 dated 01.01.2016 (Updated as on Dec. 8, 2017) purpose) were sought by the appellant. The PIO provided URLs and asked the appellant to refer to two different web-links. The Complainant submitted that the information sought in the RTI application was not accessible from the web-links shared by the PIO. The CIC observed that adequate and accurate information has been shared with the complainant. During the course of hearing, the averred information was accessed at the hyperlink directly from RBI’s official website.
Comments
In many cases, the website of the public authority is non-functional or specific pages do not open. It would be a good practice to review and upgrade the web-site from time to time.
Citation: Binu Peter v. Reserve Bank of India, Complaint No. CIC/RBIND/C/2024/125721; Date of Decision: 08.12.2025
Dr Anuradha Verma (dranuradhaverma@yahoo.co.in) is a RTI Consultant currently working with IIM Vishakhapatnam. She has co-authored the books PIO’s Guide to RTI and Right to Information – Law and Practice. Her weekly article is being published since 2008 on this site. She offers consultancy on RTI matters and third party audit to individuals / organisations. Her other articles can be read at the website of RTI Foundation at the link https://www.rtifoundationofindia.com

It is common to see beggars lining up outside the temple premises seeking alms from fellow human beings vociferously emitting words of blessings in their own distinctive parlance which is often ignored by majority. Inside the temple are people of every status, rich or poor, powerful or powerless, queuing up seeking blessings, health, wealth, success, peace or salvation from God silently within the heart unlike the raucous street beggars. The difference between both categories is only before whom they seek alms. The beggar outside pursues help from another human, the devotee inside seeks help from the Divine.
In a deeper sense, both remind us of a fundamental truth, that every human being is dependent on something beyond himself. Material wealth may remove the need to beg for money, but it does not eliminate the desire for love, security, health or happiness. Before God, all distinctions fade and every person becomes a humble seeker.
Thus, the temple presents a striking picture viz., beggars outside asking for bread, whereas beggars inside asking for grace. The former reveal human poverty and the latter reveal human dependence on the Divine. It is a different matter that many of the beggars outside temple do not get alms or go unnoticed, similar is the case with beggars before God inside the temple. Not all wishes are fulfilled and sometimes none. It is said everything happens as per destiny. Destiny cannot be changed even by God. Even God during his reincarnation as any form of Avatar suffered just like common people.
In many temples, one can also view devotees pleading in the ears of statue of the Nandi Vahana (Bull, the mount of Lord Shiva) or the Rat (the vehicle of Lord Ganesha) in the belief that the same will be transmitted or communicated through them to the God. There are also people who rely on closing the other ear of Bull or Rat in the belief that their imploring does not get leaked through the other ear.
Just as in the case of beggars outside temple, if any devotee wishes to give something as alms to those scroungers they will definitely give, but at the same time if someone has made up mind not to give any alms to such mendicants, then no amount of blessings by those beggars is going to have any effect. Similar to that, God knows what each and every one of the devotees want, be it sematerialistic things or inner peace or awareness, there is hardly any need to beg before the God. For, if God has to give He will definitely give and if not, owing to some bad karma or act by devotee as penance, no amount of prayers or begging is going to help. This simple aspect should be understood by one and all. Hypocritical comportment is not acceptable to the Almighty.
As it is said and rightly so, that neither one gets anything before time nor more than what is ordained. It is not that one should stop going to temple, but that one should stop begging before God. For peace of mind, inner peace and the serene atmosphere of temple, one should definitely go to such places of worship but desist from begging. In some temples, the Lord appeared of His own accord. Then there are other temples where the image was installed by sages, celestial beings or human beings. It is believed that according to the Hindu mythology there are nearly 330 million Gods. These Supreme Beings (Mahadevas) are considered to think and feel way beyond the restricted thoughts and feelings of the human mind. It is just only for a few of them for whom temples are built and pujas are done regularly.
When visiting temples, we tend to believe that the Mahadeva will be there to help and guide the devotee, and indeed a true belief. It is further believed that obtaining ‘darshan’ of Gods can in fact change the pattern of our karma during our past lives which are seeds now that are waiting to be manifested in the future. Seven places are said to be very holy called the ‘Sapta Puri’ — Ayodhya, Banaras, Mathura, Haridwar, Kanchipuram, Ujjain and Dwaraka. It is important to visit any of these places and temples there and beget inner peace and awareness. At the same time, it is important that when we worship God, we must not seek trivial materialistic things like beggars from Him. In fact, we should only be motivated by love for Him.
Subbiah Sridhar

This country is weird. There is no proper policy for anything. An IAS will come as DM, will make some random changes, the same will be published in newspapers and other mediums, then a new DM will come with completely different priorities. No continuity, no single policy, no improvement in the long term. All non-sense.
Rohit
National Citizen card
One more card after 20 different cards..what and why was the Aadhar card made?
F S Khan
Election fodder for another decade
Got their election fodder for another decade, it seems. Ever since we elected them to Power, citizens seem to have been stuck inside the revolving door of trying to constantly prove that "We are citizens of this country". This litmus test is just fodder for further division, electoral vote banks, and chains to pull us behind the ambition of actual growth we should have been aiming for before 2047.
Indrani