Canara Bank Refuses To Share Defaulters' Names After Writing Off Rs 1.29 Lakh Crore Bad Loans

Canara Bank has written off bad loans worth Rs 1.29 lakh crore in the past 11 years, the public sector bank revealed in an RTI reply, reported Money Life.  The bank accumulated a total of Rs 1,29,088 crore worth of bad debt from FY11-12 to FY21-22. It shared the information in reply to an RTI filed by Pune-based activist Vivek Velankar.  The bank revealed the debt loan figures but refused to disclose information on the defaulters by invoking a clause in the Right to Information (RTI) Act. “Information sought is the personal information of the borrowers, and its disclosure would cause unwarranted invasion of the privacy of the concerned and which is exempted from disclosure under section 8(1)(j) of the RTI Act,” the central public information officer (CPIO) of Canara Bank stated in the RTI reply. Mr Velankar, in his RTI, sought details on the total amount written off for borrowers whose loans exceeded Rs 100 crore. But, refusing to divulge the information, the bank replied that “information sought is not maintained in the manner sought for”, as per the report. As per section 8(1)(j) of the RTI Act, “information which relates to personal information the disclosure of which has no relationship to any public activity or interest, or which would cause unwarranted invasion of the privacy of the individual, unless the CPIO or SPIO or the Appellate Authority is satisfied that the larger public interest justifies the disclosure of such information should be exempted from disclosure.” In his other query, the activist asked the bank about the total amount written off by it for bad loans of Rs 1 crore and less. In response to this, the report added that Canara Bank shared the information on the total outstanding amount of the borrowers from FY11-12 to FY21-22.