Chandigarh Newsline:Jasneet Bindra: Thursday, 1 September, 2011.
Though it received land on nominal lease from the municipal corporation, Lions Club in Amritsar Greater has been exempted from the RTI Act. Reason: The lease given to it in 1984 ended in 1995 and was not renewed.
Taking this decision, Punjab CIC R I Singh said that the Lions Club was a non-government voluntary organisation, run by its members primarily by raising funds from their own resources.
The judgment was delivered while hearing the case of a Amritsar resident, Parbodh Chander Bali, who had argued that in a case decided last year by this commission, the Lions Club at Tanda Urmar in Hoshiarpur was declared a public authority.
The complainant had also relied upon the decision of the Punjab and Haryana High Court in a case, in which it was held that valuable land upon which that particular Lions Club had been built, belonged to the government and as no rent or lease was being paid, there was substantial financial assistance by the state.
The complainant based his case on the fact that the Amritsar Municipal Corporation (MC) had leased out land measuring 8,155 sq yds, near Gol Bagh to the club in 1984 at a very nominal amount, which amounts to substantial financial assistance.
The club, on the other hand, asserted that though the land was given on lease, it was taken back by the MC at the end of contract term in January 1995. It was clarified that the land was given for maintenance of a park, which was open to the children and public.
The respondent said that even if it was presumed that the land was given on nominal lease, this benefit was not given to the club, but to the public. “The club incurred expenditure from its own resources for maintenance of the park and even built a boundary wall,” he added.
The CIC said that since the parties were disputing the basic facts, notice was issued to the Amritsar Municipal Corporation, which confirmed that the lease was cancelled in January 1995. “Since then, the land is in the possession of the MC. Even prior to January 1995, the purpose for which the land was leased out was for ‘maintenance’ of a park. This would not amount to substantial benefit, as there was no gain to the club. If any one gained by this lease, it was the public which used the park,” Singh said.
The facts of the present case are not similar to those before the high court case, where land was given to the club for self use, he added. “Therefore, I have no hesitation in holding that Lions Club, Amritsar Greater, is not a public authority under the RTI Act,” said the CIC, while dismissing the case.
In September last year, the Hoshiarpur club was brought under the RTI Act by the commission and the matter was also referred to International Secretary, India, South Asia and East Africa, Lions Club International, Mumbai, for taking cognisance.
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