Much before Gujarat CM Narendra Modi questioned who paid for Congress chief Sonia Gandhi’s treatment abroad, the country’s transparency watchdog, the Central Information Commission, said she had not claimed “reimbursement” from the government on this.

Apart from this, chief information commissioner Satyananda Mishra in his order in May ruled expenditure incurred by an individual on his or her treatment was private information. “The expenditure made by any individual on her treatment, in India or abroad, cannot be subjected to a matter on an RTI application,” Mishra said.

RTI activist Naveen Kumar had sought information on Gandhi’s treatment in the US last year.