During his election campaign in 2014, Modi had promised to ensure that his government would ensure the return of black money deposited abroad back to the country and that Rs 15 lakh would be deposited in to every citizen’s bank account.

Two years later, the Prime Minister’s Office had received a Right To Information (RTI) a query on when the Rs 15 lakh promised by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his 2014 election campaign would be transferred to people’s bank accounts.
Mohan Kumar Sharma had filed an application on November 26, 2016, days after the Centre demonetised Rs 1,000 and Rs 500, seeking to know when the amount promised would be transferred to bank accounts. During a hearing, Sharma claimed that the Prime Minister’s office and the Reserve Bank of India had not provided complete information in response to his application.
Sharma also asked how print media publications knew about the demonetisation decision before Modi announced it.
“The respondent no. 1 (PMO) stated…they have informed the appellant that information sought by him on point nos. 1 and 4 (regarding date of deposit of Rs 15 lakh in the account of each citizen as promised by PM Narendra Modi; how print media houses came to know before the announcement of PM Narendra Modi about the demonetisation, etc.) of the RTI application does not fall under the definition of ‘information’ as per Section 2(f) of the RTI Act,” Mathur noted.
The action/steps taken by the respondent nos. 1 (PMO) and 2 (RBI) in dealing with the RTI application are satisfactory, Mathur noted.
Section 2 (f) of the RTI Act states that “information” means any material in any form, including records, documents, memos, e-mails, opinions, advices, press releases, circulars, orders, logbooks, contracts, reports, papers, samples, models, data material held in any electronic form and information concerning any private body which a public authority can access under any other law for the time being in force.