ACR under RTI,APAR,RTI Confidential,Official Secret Act
Disclosure of Annual Confidential Report under RTI aka Annual Performance Report.
As per the DoPT OM dated 10/20/2006-IR Dated 21st September 20071), following is held
The public authority is not under obligation to disclose ACRs of any employee to the employee himself or to any other person inasmuch as disclosure of ACRs is protected by clause (j) of sub-section (1) of Section 8 of the RTI Act; and an ACR is a confidential document, disclosure of which is protected by the Official Secrets Act, 1923.
However, the public authority has the discretion to disclose the Annual Confidential Reports of an employee to the employee himself or to any other person, if the public authority is satisfied that the public interest in disclosure outweighs the harm to the protected interests. If it is felt that public interest in disclosure of ACT of any employee outweighs the protected interests, decision to disclose the ACRs should be taken with the approval of the competent authority.
Competent authority in the matter may be decided by the concerned public authority.