The Central Information Commission (CIC) has ruled out disclosure of any information relating to medical tests under the RTI Act, while terming the relationship between a doctor and his patient as "fiduciary".

Arjesh Kumar Madhok, a resident of Jhansi, had filed a Right to Information application with Hyderabad-based Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics (CDFD) seeking disclosure of reports of certain tests conducted on his son, following a request from his wife.

The information was denied to Madhok on grounds that the tests were conducted at the insistence of his wife and any disclosure of the reports would, therefore, be an unwarranted invasion of the privacy of the individual concerned.

Concurring with CDFD's decision, Chief Information Commissioner Wajahat Habibullah said: "Relationship between a doctor and a patient fall squarely within the definition of fiduciary relations...the disclosure of diagnostic information to a private citizen can only be supplied by the party concerned directly and not by the confidante, in this case the
CDFD."

Madhok in his RTI request of August 17 last year had sought from CDFD details as to if any sort of DNA tests were conducted on his 5-year-old son Aditya. The applicant also sought details of any report or tests that had been conducted on Aditya, who had been living with his wife for more than a year.