HOSHIARPUR: A government aided institution is a public authority under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005 and is obliged to furnish what ever information is sought from it, the State Information Commission has held.
Hearing a complaint filed by city based Dr Bhupinder Singh against the DAV College managing committee, the SIC ruled that government aided institutions are regarded as non government organizations and hence, fall under the purview of the RTI Act.
The complainant had sought information pertaining to DAV College, Hoshiarpur, but the request was turned down on the plea that the institution was run by the DAV College Managing Committee, a society constituted by private individuals for the promotion of education, and was not funded by the government, and hence, it did not fall in the ambit of the transparency law.
The complainant, however, submitted that not only the DAV College, but two other institutions, namely DAV College of Education and DAV Higher Secondary School, which were run by the same management, received financial aid from the government.
Acknowledging that the DAV College managing committee was a controlling authority set up by the DAV College Hoshiarpur Society to administer the various educational institutions owned and run by it and. all these institutions were state aided, the SIC ruled that the provisions of RTI Act applied to it and directed it to impart the required information to the complainant.
SOURCE-HT
