• 498a divorce maintenance

My wife filed 498a FIR, I filed divorce following that... FIR going on since 2014... all these years she was asking maintenance, but I said I will do onetime settlement if she agrees divorce... now she filed another petition recently attaching my bank statements for past two years.... how is the bank authorized to give my bank statements to my wife.... please note its not joint account... its my personal account... my lawer says, according to right to information act, my wife has rights to get my account information... is that legally correct, pls advise
Asked 8 years ago in Family Law
Religion: Hindu

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10 Answers

The bank cannot give the account statement of husband to wife unless the latter is the joint account holder. A suit for compensation can be filed against the bank for sharing your account statement with your wife. RTI does not come into play here. UNless there was a court order directing the bank to share the account statements with your wife the bank had no business doing it.

Ashish Davessar
Advocate, Jaipur
30763 Answers
972 Consultations

5.0 on 5.0

1) your property details, investments and assets can be accessed by your spouse under the Right to Information Act (RTI).

2) such information has till recently been considered exempt under the RTI Act and treated as private or third party information.

3) CIC has held that larger public interest overrides exemption under privacy of an individual,

4) Citing a recent Delhi high court order — Kusum Sharma vs Mahinder Kumar Sharma — the CIC said that the court had asked both husband and wife to submit affidavits of income, assets and investments which were considered personal or third party information earlier. "Depending on the financial condition or non-availability of support from parents when husband does not maintain his wife, it challenges her right to live, and thus information related to maintenance becomes life related information,'' the order had said.

Ajay Sethi
Advocate, Mumbai
94523 Answers
7486 Consultations

5.0 on 5.0

Yes your wife can get your bank statement by filing RTI application in this regard

Ajay Sethi
Advocate, Mumbai
94523 Answers
7486 Consultations

5.0 on 5.0

This is not a matter because she has right to demand production of such document to the court and you are bound to produce it. If should you oppose it at this stage. Let her to produce and later on you may demand to prove veracity of document then she will be bound to give source of the document. Bank cannot provide bank statement to any other person except account holder.

Shivendra Pratap Singh
Advocate, Lucknow
5127 Answers
78 Consultations

4.9 on 5.0

1. No. It is your personal account and its details can not be divulged to any other person,

2. Your wife is a separate individual who related to you as wife,

3. The Bank will not be in consonance with law to provide information about your Bank details to anybody else without Court order.

Krishna Kishore Ganguly
Advocate, Kolkata
27191 Answers
726 Consultations

5.0 on 5.0

1. If Bank details of husbands can be given to wife without the consent of the husband, wife can ask directly from the I.Tax authorities, the copies of tre ITR filed by the husband,

2. We are aware that court order is required to seek copies of ITR from I.Tax authorities.

Krishna Kishore Ganguly
Advocate, Kolkata
27191 Answers
726 Consultations

5.0 on 5.0

Dear Querist

if there is any RTI applicationw as filed by your wife and the bank is govt. bank then only the statement can be obtain otherwsie not.

issue a legal notice to bank and claim compensation for the violation of your fundamental right as right to privacy and negligence of contract which is executed between you and bank, the bank is bound to not to informed about your account details or statment to any third party until and unless there is a court order.

Feel Free to Call

Nadeem Qureshi
Advocate, New Delhi
6307 Answers
302 Consultations

4.9 on 5.0

HI

No person can get your bank statements without your knowledge. Not even under RTI.

Sorry to say this against a colleague, but you should fire your lawyer right away.

Just check whether there are any court orders to the bank on them to issue your bank statements.

Any bank statements obtained through dubious illegal means shall not be construed as evidence in the court of law.

file a criminal complaint against your bank and also your wife .

Rajgopalan Sripathi
Advocate, Hyderabad
2173 Answers
394 Consultations

5.0 on 5.0

how is the bank authorized to give my bank statements to my wife.... please note its not joint account... its my personal account... my lawer says, according to right to information act, my wife has rights to get my account information... is that legally correct, pls advise

Your lawyer is right in his opinion that the wife or the spouse is entitled to obtain information about the income tax details or bank account details in respect of the other spouse through RTI act.

In fact if your wife petitions the court to direct the bank manager to produce the account details and the court passes an order then the bank has to obey the court orders, you cannot object to it.

T Kalaiselvan
Advocate, Vellore
84722 Answers
2172 Consultations

5.0 on 5.0

So, does it mean that my wife can get statements of my bank accounts without my knowledge?

There is a ruling denying the information sought but dont know how fare this will b applicable to your case, the details are given below:

RTI Foundation of India

Husband seeking bank account details of his wife - such information is held by the bank in fiduciary relationship and exempt from disclosure - section 8(1)(e) and section 8(1)(j) of RTI Act

RTI Foundation of India

O R D E R RTI application 1. The appellant filed an RTI application with the PIO on 9.3.2012 seeking details of the account of his wife. In all, information has been sought on seven points. The PIO denied the information on 12.3.2012 under section 8(1)(e) and section 8(1)(j) of the RTI Act 2005. 2. Not satisfied with the reply of PIO, the appellant filed an appeal on 4.4.2012 with the first appellate authority (FAA). The FAA upheld the reply of CPIO on 10.4.2012. The appellant approached the Commission on 15.5.2012 in second appeal. Hearing 3. The appellant and the respondent both participated in the hearing through video conferencing. 4. The appellant referred to his RTI application of 9.3.2012 and stated that he was seeking financial details pertaining to his wife, but the bank has denied the information to him taking cover of the exemption clauses of the RTI Act. 5. The respondent stated that this matter was earlier heard by the Information Commission on 3.4.2013 wherein the Commission passed a decision vide No.CIC/VS/A/2012/000032/02664 upholding the decision of the FAA who had agreed with the reply of PIO denying the information to the appellant. The respondent stated that the appellant had not even appeared in that hearing. 6. The respondent stated that the appellant is seeking a vast canvas of information about his wife’s account, e.g. statements, all transactions, salary transfer, details of introducer, copy of account opening form, documents attached with the account opening form, name of nominee and relationship, annual income, details about fixed/term deposits etc. The respondent stated that this is obviously information with the bank held in the fiduciary relationship and hence this was denied on 12.3.2012 under section 8(1)(e) of the RTI Act and this response of the CPIO was later upheld by the FAA on 10.4.2012. 7. The appellant stated that he is seeking the information to protect his financial interests and to show his innocence in the court of law, as he has a dispute with his wife who has filed a maintenance case against him. 8. The respondent has taken action in conformity with the provisions of the RTI Act. Decision 9. The decision of the FAA is upheld.

RTI Foundation of India

Shri Pankaj Jaychand Agashe v. Canara Bank in Decision No. CIC/VS/A/2012/000990/03989

In view of the above order you still can pin some hopes to resist the divulgence of information of your bank personal details.

T Kalaiselvan
Advocate, Vellore
84722 Answers
2172 Consultations

5.0 on 5.0

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