Posted on 22nd August, 2024 (GMT 09:00 hrs)
Updated on 24th September, 2024 (GMT 08:15 hrs)
ABSTRACT
The article discusses an RTI filed to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) seeking details on the total expenditure of the RBI-appointed Committee of Creditors (CoC) for Dewan Housing Finance Corporation Limited (DHFL). The RTI also asked about funds allocated for litigation and their sources. The response from RBI was vague, stating that the information had been forwarded for a consolidated reply, but no further details have been provided, raising concerns about transparency and accountability.
For more details, you can view the full article here.
We filed an RTI application to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on 22/06/2024 with the following questions:
Kindly inform me regarding the total expenditure (with break up) in the RBI-appointed Committee of Creditors for the Dewan Housing Finance Corporation Limited (DHFL).
With reference to the above, please also inform me with regards to the following:
1. The amount of money reserved for the resolution professionals belonging to the CoC for DHFL for the purpose of future expenditure in litigation purposes.
2. What is the source of this money for future expenditure in the court of law?
Please answer in precise and specific terms, satisfying the aforementioned queries. Please do not refer to any online documents since I am not a tech-savvy person.
On 18/07/2024, we received the following one-line reply from the authority:
Information provided to Nodal Department for providing a consolidated reply to the applicant.
Till today, no such “consolidated reply” has been given to us even after more than 2 months after filing the initial application. What is taking so long? What is stopping the concerned authority from presenting these facts/information? Are not these information easily accessible and reportable?
This is why in an earlier post, we announced:
This is also the reason why we demanded the expulsion of Mr. Shaktikanta Das as the incompetent RBI-governor:
We had filed many RTIs previously:
The answer(s) my friend, are blowing in the wind…
UPDATE (23/08/2024): HAVE RBI AND IBBI LOST THEIR ACCOUNTABILITY?
Immediately after posting this article, we received an email from the IBBI on 23/08/2024, suggesting a reply to our RTI application. Witness the strength of online movement!
We found the following reply by the IBBI, saying that it has no data available with the concerned body:
Upon re-checking the status of our RTI application on the online RTI portal after receiving the email, we found multiple replies from multiple concerned authorities on this matter put together:
The RBI also shows another previous consolidated reply from 19/07/2024, also saying that it has no information to give in response to our relevant queries!
See the updated progression of this application in the last month, about which we were kept in the dark:
Where were these information yesterday? Once we posted this article on our website, the authority immediately shivered and was forced to intimate us about the proceedings that have hitherto taken place!
Moreover, if NO DATA is available pertaining to our questions or inquiries with these bodies, whom should we approach then? Did not the RBI appoint the CoC for DHFL? Does not the IBBI contain all insolvency-related data? Why are they avoiding the answers? Are those answers uncomforting and disturbing?
Therefore, we will be making further appeals on this issue…
UPDATE (24/08/2024):
We made two consecutive first appeals to the first appellate authorities on 24th August, 2024, under the IBBI as well as the RBI, with the same following text:
With reference to my RTI, I would like to raise this appeal as an aggrieved Indian citizen. The information sought as part of my erstwhile application was with regard to the RBI-appointed CoC for DHFL’s total expenditure. Now, my precise questions are:
a) How did the same RBI (that appointed the CoC for DHFL in 2019) along with the IBBI (dealing with insolvency related information) could not provide me with certain information regarding the RBI-appointed CoC for DHFL, the first shadow bank that was put under the IBC (2016)?
b) Can you please tell me the concerned authority that can answer my previously raised queries by supplying me with the necessitated information?
I would like to receive specific answers to these questions.
SEE ALSO:
i) SMELLING THE RAT IN THE DHFL-COC RESOLUTION PROCESS: A LETTER TO THE PRESIDENT OF INDIA VIEW HERE⤡
iii) YOU’RE ALL CAUGHT UP: RBI-APPOINTED COC FOR DHFL⤡
iv) An Open Letter to Two Public Servants: Mr. R Subramaniakumar and Mrs. Charu Sandeep Desai ⤡
UPDATE (24/09/2024): THE RBI’S DOWNFALL
The FAA replied on 24th September, 2024, after a month from the first appeal.
In the reply, it was stated that the authority is not supposed to “create” or “interpret” information that is “non-available” with the authority. It has further tried to let go of its accountabilities by alluding to the IBBI, which, however, has said the same thing with regard to the parallel RTI application, i.e., the queries raised are not available with the authorities and do not fall under the RTI Act’s definition of “information” as such. The RBI’s RTI authority’s FAA also stated that raising fresh queries is not permitted in the process of filing RTIs.
Here is the full response:
All such points necessarily amount to the deliberate refusal and avoidance of what is supposed to be “publicly available records”, driven by the ruling party’s role in the DHFL scam through terror-funding. How cannot the RBI provide information about the insolvency expenditure of an NBFC that falls under its authority? RBI appointed the CoC for DHFL, but, paradoxically enough, it does not know its own expenditures!!! Moreover, the queries that were raised in the first appeal were in coherence or in compatibility (as logico-legal corollaries) with the queries raised in the original application. So, how can the given RTI authority avoid the same by saying one cannot ask “new” questions? Did not the RTI authority ever perform any sort of mathematical or logical derivation, where the initial premises yield many corollaries, hidden premises or enthymemes in order to pave the way towards a warranted conclusion?
We are deeply dissatisfied with the state of the RBI under the crony Saffron Fascist rule and are discouraged to see how the independent accountability of key financial institutions are getting withered away to suit the profiteering, asset-increasing aims of the present ruling party of India! It is a matter of regret that Mr. Shakti Kanta Das, the RBI Governor, an MA in history, does not know the methods for preserving historical records from the recent past! It is just like Nirmala Sitharaman’s remarks on the price of onions, where she stated she does not consume onions and hence, she has no reply to give with regard to the conditions of hyper-inflation.
What a shame! Why are you turning yourselves into laughable jokers (with full respect to the real jokers)?
Once in a Blue Moon Academia 
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