TNN, Sep 16, 2010
MUMBAI: The Bombay high court ruled on Tuesday that documents related to the development of special economic zones (SEZ)s, which have public interest involved, could not be kept confidential but have to be in public domain.
A division bench of Justice B H Marlapalle and Justice N D Deshpande was hearing a petition filed by SKIL Infra that had challenged the RTI commissioner's order asking Cidco to provide a Navi Mumbai resident with documents of the Navi Mumbai SEZ Pvt Ltd. The petition stated that the company had tied up with Cidco, the development authority, to set up the Navi Mumbai SEZ and the two had agreed on a deal that documents pertaining to this joint venture would be kept confidential.
The court, however, did not rule in favour of the petitioner and said in a case where public interest was involved, such a clause of confidentiality would not be applicable and documents would have to be made public.
Sanjay Surve, a Navi Mumbai resident, had asked Cidco about information on the Navi Mumbai SEZ and sought to look through 24 documents; but he was given only 15 and his plea for the remaining was rejected.
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