Times of India: Aurangabad: Thursday,
March 02, 2017.
Cooperative
institutions can no longer refuse to divulge information under the Right To
Information (RTI) Act with the Aurangabad bench of the Bombay high court ruling
that these establishments come under the purview of the transparency
legislation.
The
two-member bench of Justices Sangitrao Patil and T V Nalawade referred to a
Supreme Court verdict in a matter involving the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and
held that everything which is mentioned in the definition of information as per
RTI Act needs to be provided by the cooperative institutions. The court also
said that previous interpretation made by it while deciding the case was not
correct in view of the apex court verdict.
While disposing
of the petition filed by the association of Jalgaon Zilla Urban Cooperative
Banks, Credit Societies and other financial institutions seeking exemption from
the RTI Act, the court ruled that the contention of the cooperative institution
that it is a private body was dealt with by the Supreme Court.
The
petitioner had argued before the court that cooperative institutions registered
under Maharashtra Cooperative Societies Act, 1960 cannot be treated as public
authority as per the section 2(h) and section 8 of the RTI Act. Also, another
major contention was that in view of the provision of section 34A of the
Banking Regulation Act, 1949, cooperative institutions are not bound to
disclose certain information which, according to them, is confidential in nature.
The court,
besides invoking the Supreme Court verdict, also brought to the notice the
possibility of state aid and even giving subsidies to cooperative institution
to protect the cooperative movement. Even Articles 38, 39, 43 and 48 of the
Directive Principles of State Policy of the Constitution of India show that to
some extent such institutions are discharging duty of the state, the court
said.
Highlighting
that cooperative institutions cannot act independently and the apex bodies are
created for such institutions, the court ruled that the observations made by
the apex court can be used safely when the information is sought from the
authority like Registrar or his subordinates of a cooperative institution.
Advocate
Suresh Kulkarni, who represented Virendra Karanjikar in a crucial intervention
application before the court, said the ruling would ensure transparency and
accountability in the cooperative sector.
"The
verdict will have a far reaching effect in Maharashtra, which pioneered the
cooperative movement in the country. The cooperative sector was witnessing
gradual decline over the past some years due to opaque and unaccountable
functioning. The court ruling will usher in a new era," he said.
There are a
total of 510 urban cooperative banks and 15,000 credit cooperative societies in
the state. State cooperation commissioner Chandrakant Dalvi said the verdict in
the matter of cooperative institutions would be followed in letter and spirit.
"At our
end, we will take proactive measures to ensure institutions governed by us suo
motu disclose the information under the RTI Act. The audit reports should be
also made public voluntarily," he said.
The RTI
community, which was insisting on bringing the cooperative institutions under
the transparency legislation for long, has hailed the court verdict stating it
would have great impact on the functioning of cooperative sector.
RTI activist
Vijay Kumbhar said the court verdict has ruled that cooperative institutions
cannot skip the RTI Act. "The verdict has come in the light of an apex
court verdict and is welcomed by RTI community for larger good of the
society," he said.
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