[HumJanenge] LANDMARK JUDGMENT OF P&H HIGH COURT UNDER RTI ACT - PCA CULTS, SCHOOLS COOP H/B SOCIETIES/MILLS/BANKS ARE PUBLIC AUTHORITIES.

09 MAY 2011

PUNJAB CRICKET ASSOCIATION (PCA) MOHALI, LAWN TENNIS ASSOCIATION, JALLANDHAR GYMKHANA, SUTLUJ CLUB, LUDHIANA ARE COVERED UNDER RTI ACT; ALL COOPERATIVE SOCIETIES, COOPERATIVE SUGAR MILLS, COOP. HOUSE BUILDING SOCIETIES, AND COOPERATIVE BANKS ARE ALSO COVERED UNDER RTI ACT; PRIVATE SCHOOLS CONTROLLED UNDER EDUCATION ACT IN HARYANA ARE ALSO COVERED UNDER RTI ACT- RULES JUSTICE M.S. SULLAR OF THE PUNJAB & HARYANA HIGH COURT.

 

Justice M.S. Sullar today in a land mark common judgment passed in 19 civil writ petitions filed by various organizations challenging the orders passed by the State Information Commissions of Punjab and Haryana, pertaining to the applicability of the Right to Information Act, 2005 to Sports Associations, Sports Clubs, Cooperative Sugar Mills, Co-operative House Building Societies, and cooperative Banks in Punjab and Haryana, declared all those bodies to be covered under the RTI Act, and upheld the orders passed by the Punjab as well as Haryana State Information Commissions holding the petitioner-organizations as "Public authorities" under the RTI Act.

 

In his exhaustive 39 page judgment, Justice Sullar lamented and expressed his shock in the very opening para about the growing tendency on the part of institutions to deny information, and thereby attempting to defeat the RTI Act, which has been enacted to introduce transparency; he also referred in his judgment to the factum of corruption eating into the democratic fabric like a parasite.

 

Dealing with the PCA Mohali case, Justice Sullar observed that as per orders of the SIC Punjab, PCA was given 13.56 acres of land at token rental of Rs.100/- per year; it received grants from PUDA (10.15 lacs), from Punjab Sports Council (Rs.15 lakhs), from Punjab Small Savings (Rs.77 lacs), Rs.2026.66 lacs from BCCI; It also receive Rs.8.50 crores from PUDA for construction of Cricket Stadium, and Rs.1.65 lacs for construction of Club House. The Single Jude, therefore, accepted the argument of Advocate H.C. Arora (appearing for the respondent-information seeker, Anil Kashyap of Ludhiana) that PCA  Mohali has been given substantial financial assistance by the Government, and is therefore a "Public Authority" under the RTI Act, 2005. On the same analogy, Justice Sullar declared Lawn Tennis Association, Chandigarh, the Jallandhar Gymkhana, and Sutluj Club, Ludhiana, as Public authorities.

 

Dealing with various civil writ petitions filed by  Bhogpur Cooperative Sugar Mills Ltd., Haryana State Coop. Agri Development Bank, Sirsa District Cooperative Milk Producers Union Limited, Pancham Coop. House Building Society Ltd., Chandigarh, Jallandhar Central Coop Bank Ltd, Hindu Coop. Bank Lt., Pb. State Coop. Bank Limited,  and Zenith Coop. House Building Society, Justice Sullar extensively referred to the provisions of Punjab and Haryana Societies Registration Acts, and held that right from registration of cooperative society, at every step these societies are controlled by the said Acts through Bureaucrats; some of them have share capital of the State Governments. Thus, all of the said organizations are covered under the RTI Act, 2005, being "Public authorities".

 

Dealing with the argument of petitioner's counsels, including that of Senior Advocate, Shri M.L. Sareen, that none of the petitioners, including PCA Mohali received "substantial financial assistance" from the Government, and were therefore, not public authorities, Justice Sullar observed that expression "substantially financed" cannot be defined in terms of percentage or ratios, in the absence of  said expression having been defined under the RTI Act; thus, this expression has to be understood in contra-distinction to the word "trivial"; If so seen, the PCA Mohali, Sutluj Club, Ludhiana etc. have  collected billions in their kitty on account of the land provided to them by the State Government; Referring further  to PCA Mohali, Justice  Sullar recorded a finding that exemption from entertainment duty to PCA and other sports bodies by the Government also amounts to "substantial finance" to them.

 

In relation to various private schools in Haryana, including Geeta Girls Senior Secondary School, Saini Education Society, Rohtak etc., Justice Sullar extensively referred to the provisions of "Education Act" and observed that all those schools were deeply controlled by the authorities under the Education Act, and were therefore, "public authorities".

 

Coming to merits of the orders passed in all these 19 cases by the respective State Information Commissions, Justice Sullar held that in none of the cases, the information seekers had sought any such information that could be exempted from disclosure under Section 8 of the Act. Thus, on merits also, all the writ petitions deserve to be dismissed - PRESENT  H.C. ARORA - COUNSEL AGAINST  PCA

--
"Our biggest competition is never with the others.
Instead, it is always within ourselves.
It doesn't matter if where we end up - first or at last.
If we do our best to do better than before, we've won"

Warm Regards

Surendera M. Bhanot
- President, RTI Help & Assistance Forum Chandigarh
- Youth for Human Rights International YHRI - South Asia
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- Jt. Secretary, Amateur Judo Association of Chandigarh
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- Member, RTI Activist Federation, Punjab, Chandigarh
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