CIC: Wife has Right to Know Spouse’s Salary

The wives of government servants have a “right” to know the particulars of their husbands’ salary and these details should also be made public by their offices as mandated under the RTI Act, the Central Information Commission has held.

Information Commissioner M Sridhar Acharyulu said every spouse has a right to information about the salary particulars of the other especially for the purpose of maintenance. “More so, wife has a right to know the salary particulars of the husband, who is an employee of the public authority,” he said.

The commissioner further said that the details about a government employee’s salary is no third party information.

He said the salary paid to the public authority is sourced from the tax paid by the people in general and it has to be disclosed mandatorily under the RTI.

Hindustan Times, New Delhi, 20-01-2014