Quick answer. Yes — a public servant is entitled to their own service book, APARs/ACRs and most records the department holds about them. The Supreme Court in Dev Dutt v. Union of India (2008) 8 SCC 725 and Sukhdev Singh v. Union of India (2013) 9 SCC 566 held that every APAR/ACR entry must be communicated to the officer, and DoPT OM No. 21011/1/2005-Estt.(A) (Pt-II) dated 14 May 2009 makes full-APAR disclosure to the officer the default from reporting year 2008-09. Section 8(1)(j) of the RTI Act protects your personal information from third parties — a PIO cannot turn it against you when you ask for your own record. These all-India principles apply equally to Kerala government employees.
Editorial correction (10 July 2026). An earlier version of this page summarised an unnamed “High Court of Kerala” ruling said to have been decided on 01 January 2021, parties “Public servant v. Department”, with “citation awaited”. We re-checked Indian Kanoon's Kerala High Court records for 2020–2022 and could not find any such judgment — no identifiable Kerala HC decision matches that description. That summary has been removed. Everything below is rebuilt on judgments and government orders verified against the primary source, with links.
A government servant can see and obtain copies of their own service book, Annual Performance Appraisal Reports (APARs), the older Annual Confidential Reports (ACRs), transfer orders, and other records the employer holds about them. The legal basis is threefold: the Supreme Court's natural-justice rulings requiring communication of every appraisal entry, the DoPT's standing instruction that the full APAR be disclosed to the officer as a matter of course, and the RTI Act, 2005, under which your own record is your own personal information — not something to be hidden from you.
| Authority | What it decided | Where to read it |
|---|---|---|
| Dev Dutt v. Union of India, (2008) 8 SCC 725, decided 12 May 2008 | Every ACR entry — poor to very good — must be communicated to the officer; non-communication is arbitrary and violates Article 14 | Indian Kanoon doc 801705 |
| Sukhdev Singh v. Union of India, (2013) 9 SCC 566, decided 23 April 2013 | Three-judge bench affirms Dev Dutt — the communication rule is settled law | Indian Kanoon doc 9665019 |
| DoPT OM No. 21011/1/2005-Estt.(A) (Pt-II), dated 14 May 2009 | Full APAR to be disclosed to the officer after each reporting period, 2008-09 onwards, with 15 days to represent against entries | DoPT circular PDF |
| Girish Ramchandra Deshpande v. CIC, (2013) 1 SCC 212, decided 3 October 2012 | A third party cannot get another public servant's service records under RTI without a larger public interest — s.8(1)(j) shields you from others | Indian Kanoon doc 160205361 |
Section 8(1)(j) exempts “personal information” whose disclosure has no relationship to public activity or would cause unwarranted invasion of privacy. PIOs sometimes stamp this on requests for service books and APARs. The distinction that decides these cases:
The RTI Act contains a separate, narrow carve-out: Section 8(1)(h) exempts information that “would impede the process of investigation or apprehension or prosecution of offenders”. A department may rely on it to defer disclosure of vigilance or disciplinary material while an investigation or inquiry is genuinely pending — but the PIO must show how disclosure would actually impede that process, and the exemption falls away once proceedings conclude. It is a timing objection, not a permanent bar on your own records.
The judgments above are Supreme Court law and bind every public authority in Kerala. For Kerala government staff, service books are maintained by the department under the applicable Kerala Service Rules, RTI applications go to the State Public Information Officer of the office holding the record, and second appeals lie to the Kerala State Information Commission under Section 19(3). The 14 May 2009 DoPT OM as such binds central government offices; for state employees, rely on the Dev Dutt and Sukhdev Singh principle — communication of every appraisal entry is a requirement of natural justice under Article 14, which applies to state employers with equal force.
To word the request, ask for records, not explanations: certified copies of your service book as it stands, your APARs/ACRs for named years including all gradings and remarks, and the record of when each was communicated to you. You can generate a clean application with the RTI drafting assistant, and if the PIO refuses, run the reply through the PIO Reply Checker before filing a first appeal under Section 19(1). State-wise application fees are listed at state-wise RTI fees.
These pages cover the closest points of law in the corpus — useful starting points if you are researching the same question.
Editorial summary, not a certified report. Verify every citation against the full reported decision before using it in a PIO order, FAA speaking order, or any appellate filing. RTI Wiki is not a legal service.
Editorial summary · reviewed by Dr. Shrawan Kumar Pathak · last reviewed 10 July 2026.