Policy Number Not Mandatory For Seeking LIC Details Under RTI Act, But Basic Identifying Details Required: Delhi High Court

The Delhi High Court has held that while an individual can seek details of Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) policies under the Right to Information (RTI) Act without furnishing the policy number, such requests must be supported by basic identifying particulars to enable retrieval of information.A Division Bench of Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Tejas Karia dismissed an intra-court appeal filed by a policyholder, who had sought a complete list of LIC policies in which she was the insured, without providing the policy numbers.The appellant had filed an RTI application in March 2022 seeking details of all policies issued in her name. The Central Public Information Officer (CPIO) of LIC declined the request, stating that information could not be furnished without the policy number. This decision was upheld by the First Appellate Authority.However, on second appeal, the Central Information Commission (CIC) observed that LIC should develop a mechanism to retrieve policy details even in the absence of policy numbers and ordered disclosure of information.Challenging the CIC's order, LIC approached the High Court and Single Judge, while noting the need for improving data systems, refrained from issuing mandatory directions and instead allowed the applicant to file a fresh request with relevant details.Upholding this approach, the Division Bench said,“It is understandable that if under some insurance policy some person‟s life has been insured without his or her knowledge, he/she may not know the policy number, however, the details regarding insured party‟s name, date of birth, gender, address with pin code, mobile number, email id and bank account number as registered under NEFT are such details which can be presumed to be within the knowledge of the person seeking the information.”The Bench emphasized the practical limitations involved, observing that LIC manages over 27 crore policies and cannot be expected to manually trace records without adequate inputs.“...in absence of certain details, it will be difficult; rather impossible to retrieve any information sought in respect of a particular policy. It is quite possible that an insured person may not know the policy number; however, the other details which will enable the LIC to retrieve the details of the insurance policy need to be furnished by a person seeking any such information. In absence of such details, in our opinion, it will be impossible for the LIC to retrieve the information and furnish it to the information seeker,” it said.As such, the Court dismissed the appeal, while clarifying that there is no restriction on an insured person seeking policy information, provided adequate identifying details are furnished.Appearance: Appellant in person. Case title: Ambika Gupta v. CPIO LICCitation: 2026 LiveLaw (Del) 365Case no.: LPA 113/2026Click here to read order

Policy Number Not Mandatory For Seeking LIC Details Under RTI Act, But Basic Identifying Details Required: Delhi High Court

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