Naveed Bukhtiyar
With utter disregard for High Court judgment passed in the month of April, J&K Cooperative Housing Corporation Ltd. (JKCHC) continues to claim that it doesn’t fall within the purview of the RTI act.
In response to an RTI application, JKCHC refused to disclose the information, tossing the application around as part of its dodging tactics to keep the information sought by the applicant to itself.
The RTI Application
Nazir Ahmad Lone of the J&K RTI Movement had filed an RTI application with the office of the Managing Director JKCHC, Jammu, seeking information related to the details of colonies which the housing co-operative society was supposed to develop.
Information seeker had requested the Public Information Officer (PIO) to disclose the details of colonies/sites which were completed/materialized and those which were under construction in Jammu till the date of receiving of the RTI application (Exact Location of the Colony, No. of Plots, Date of inception of work, site details, purchase and selling rate of plots for such construction/Development, etc with Xerox copy of documents), among other details.
JKCHC Response
However, the applicant received the response from the J&K Co-operative Housing Corporation LTD, after filing the first appeal, refusing to share any information citing a Supreme Court judgment.
The communication received by the applicant reads: “Since cooperative societies do not fall within the definition of Public Authority under RTI Act, 2005 as per the judgment delivered by the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India in the civil Appeal no.9017 of 2013 titled Thalappalam Ser, Coop. Bank Ltd and others V/s State of Kerala and others, therefore the J&K Cooperative Housing Corporation has not appointed any public Information or the First Appellate Authority. As such your first appeal under RTI Act, 2005 cannot be heard.”
First Appeal
The applicant filed a similar RTI application with the Cooperative Department at Civil Secretariat, seeking similar information, however, the PIO of the department at the civil secretariat transferred the RTI application to the Registrar Co-operative Societies, J&K, invoking section 6(3).
Aggrieved by this transfer of RTI Application, the applicant filed the first appeal before the First Appellate Authority of the Cooperative Department, Civil secretariat on the grounds that RTI application cannot be transferred to Registrar Co-operative Society as under section 6(3), the mandate of the 6(3) is to transfer the application to the different public authority who is in possession of that information.
It read: “ 6 (3) Where an application is made to a public authority requesting for an information,— (i) which is held by another public authority; or (ii) the subject matter of which is more closely connected with the functions of another public authority, the public authority, to which such application is made. shall transfer the application or such part of it as may be appropriate to that other public authority and inform the applicant immediately about such transfer.”
First Appellate Authority by virtue of order no. Coop-RTI/12/2022 dated: 01-06-2022 decided the first appeal and held that “in view of the given facts and circumstances of the case and averments made herein above, the contents of the appeal were found not maintainable against the CPIO, Cooperative department as transfer of the application by the concerned CPIO under section 6(3) of the RTI Act. 2005 seems Justified. However, considering the spirit of the RTI Act, the appeal is disposed off with the direction to the CPIO, Cooperative Department to request the concerned CPIO (maintaining the said Information) to provide all the requisite information of the appellant within a period of 15 days free of cost as provided under the provisions of section 7(6) of the RTI Act,2005.”
However, the corporation continued to give a cold shoulder and the applicant hasn’t hitherto received any information from the PIO of the Registrar Co-operative Society.
Controversy arises here about who is following the law, who is dodging the law, and who is the custodian of information. Whereas the administrative department considers itself under RTI Act and transfers the application to the office who it believes is the custodian of information, the latter – J&K Co-operative Housing Corporation Ltd. – never responds. Despite being a part and parcel of the Cooperative department, it claims it doesn’t fall within the ambit of the RTI act. Pertinently, corporations are the companies that are substantially financed by the government.
Misquoting SC judgment
Supreme Court in Thalappalam Ser. Coop. Bank Ltd. & … vs State Of Kerala & Ors has held: “We, therefore, hold that the Cooperative Societies registered under the Kerala Co-operative Societies Act will not fall within the definition of “public authority” as defined under Section 2(h) of the RTI Act.”
Similarly, here in J&K there are co-operative societies registered under exemption from the RTI law as they are private entities and are not, in most cases, substantially financed by the government but the judgment nowhere gives clean chit to government departments or companies.
Applicant Nazir Ahmad Lone believes it is a practice to take an information seeker for a ride and demoralize him from seeking any information. “These are dodging tactics to wear down the applicants so that they give up in frustration and the corporation keeps the information to itself, which is a brazen violation of law,” said a dejected Lone. “It appears that the rule of law is dying in the union territory and the authorities at JKCHC know they can get away with any violation,” said Lone.
When Kashmir Newsline contacted Additional Secretary to Cooperative Department, he expressed his inability to comment. “I can’t comment without going through the documents,” said Kumar.
High Court Judgment
It is important to mention here that J&K High Court in the month of April put an end to the controversy by passing an order in favour of the RTI activist in a case that was filed by J&K Co-operative Housing Corporation LTD (JKCHC).
JKCHC had challenged the decision of the J&K State Information Commission whereby it was declared a ‘Public Authority’ under J&K RTI Act 2009 by filing a writ petition before the High Court. The writ petition was dismissed and the court held that the J&K Cooperative Housing Corporation Ltd. being controlled and substantially financed by the government is a Public Authority under the Right to Information Act.
After the dismissal of the writ petition, the citizens can now seek information from the J&K Cooperative Housing Corporation Ltd. under the Right to Information Act. But despite the passing of two months since the judgment, JKCHC is yet to release the information.
