By IANS,
New Delhi : The Delhi High Court Friday ruled that even those companies in which the government has a minority stake can be brought under the purview of the Right to Information (RTI) Act.
Declaring National Agricultural Cooperative Federation of India Ltd (NAFED), National Cooperative Consumer Federation of India Ltd (NCCF) and Krishak Bharti Cooperative Ltd public authorities, Justice S. Muralidhar said there is no need to have deep or pervasive government control over an institution to bring it under the ambit of the transparency law.
“The absence of any adjective like deep or pervasive qualifying the word controlled in the RTI Act means that any control over the body by the central government will suffice to make it a public authority,” the court said
It dismissed the companies’ plea that since the government does not have majority stake in them, they do not fall under the ambit of the RTI.
“The initial attempt by most organisations and entities is to avoid the obligations under the RTI Act. Since the culture of transparency has not fully set in and old habits die hard, there is resistance on the part of institutions and entities to avoid being declared a public authority,” the court said.