SGPC under RTI Act purview, rules CIC.

Indian Express; Chandigarh: Wed Apr 20 2011,

Chandigarh : The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) is a public authority, and hence under the purview of the Right to Information (RTI) Act, the Central Information Commission (CIC) has ruled.

The Punjab State Information Commission has passed a similar ruling on several earlier occasions; the SGPC had gone to the Punjab and Haryana High Court against one such order and obtained a stay. The CIC order came last month, as it decided the case of Kuldeep Singh Khaira of Ludhiana, who had, on April 14, 2010, asked the SGPC PIO for information on the Nankana Sahib Education Trust. SGPC had declined to answer, citing the High Court stay order, which was passed in a different case.

The applicant argued that in a similar case between the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) and one Mohinder Singh Mathru, the Delhi High Court had ruled that the Delhi gurdwara body was a public authority. The CIC then asked the SGPC to submit a copy of the stay order, and apprise it of the latest position in the case before the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

In his order, Information Commissioner M L Sharma said that in view of the Delhi High Court judgment, he had no hesitation in holding that the SGPC, constituted under the Sikh Gurdwara Act, 1925, was a public authority.

Sharma also said that the Nankana Sahib Education Trust “is a body controlled and managed by the SGPC for all practical purposes and, therefore, the SGPC has all the authority to summon any information from the Trust”.

The CIC directed the SGPC to appoint a PIO and appellate authority within six weeks, who would summon the information requested by the appellant from the Nankana Sahib Education Trust.

On December 4, 2009, Punjab Chief Information Commissioner R I Singh had held that the SGPC was covered under the RTI Act, and that transparency and openness were in consonance with its democratic character.