NEW DELHI, Oct 6: Some societies, trusts and charitable institutions have been declared as public authority covered under the Right to Information Act by different high courts, according to a compilation by an NGO.
The data, which was compiled in the backdrop of a recent government decision to amend the RTI Act to give immunity to political parties from providing information, shows that many private organisations and autonomous bodies have been declared as public authority by state and central information commissions.
“Many information commissions at the central and state level have held several non-government organisations to be public authorities under the RTI Act because they are financed substantially by some government or the other.
“Many such organisations challenged these decisions in various high courts demanding a reversal of the orders but did not always achieve success,” Venkatesh Nayak, coordinator (access to information programme) of Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) which has brought out the compilation, said.
The compilation includes a series of judgements declaring cooperative societies, cooperative banks, cooperative sugar mills, private organisations and Special Purpose Vehicles (Private Public Partnerships), autonomous institutions, educational and religious institutions as public authorities.
Bangalore International Airport Authority Ltd has been declared as public authority by the Karnataka High Court, Delhi Multi Model Transit System Ltd, and Electronics and Computer Software Export Promotion Council by the Delhi High Court and management bodies of Hindu temples declared public authority by the Madras High Court, it said.
“It is quite possible that some of these judgements may have been appealed against before a larger bench of the High Court concerned or before the Supreme Court,” Nayak said.
The Cricket and Lawn Tennis Association has been declared public authority by Punjab and Haryana High Court, Krishak Bharati Cooperative Limited (KRIBHCO), National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd (NAFED), National Cooperative Consumers’ Federation of India Limited (NCCF) and Tamil Nadu Road Development Co Ltd have also been declared as public authorities by High Courts, the compilation said.
A Parliamentary Standing Committee is considering a bill aimed at changing the RTI Act to shield political parties from providing information under the Act.
The Central Information Commission had in its June 3 order declared six political parties — Congress, BJP, NCP, CPI-M, CPI and BSP — as public authorities liable to disclose information under the transparency law.
The CIC’s decision had evoked sharp reaction from political parties and forced the government to move a Bill to negate the order by the transparency body.
The Right to Information (Amendment) Bill, 2013, was introduced on August 12 in Lok Sabha by Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions V Narayanasamy.
It has been referred to Parliamentary Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and Justice headed by Rajya Sabha MP Shantaram Naik for wider consultation. (PTI)
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