Times of India: New Delhi:
Wednesday, July 31, 2013.
The Central
Information Commission (CIC) has ruled that the Army Welfare Housing
Organization is an extension of the Army and comes under the ambit of the Right
to Information Act.
"We hold
that the AWHO, though on paper a separate entity, is nothing but an extension
of the Army by virtue of being under the all pervasive control of senior
serving Army officers, including the AG. We, therefore, hold that the AWHO is
public authority under... the RTI Act," the commission said.
The full
bench of the commission comprising chief information commissioner Satyananda
Mishra and information commissioners M L Sharma and Vijay Sharma said regular
deputation of Army officers to AWHO on the terms and conditions determined by
the defence ministry also reinforced the impression that in quintessence the
AWHO was an Army organization.
AWHO was
opposing bringing it under the ambit of the RTI Act arguing that it was a
society registered with the Registrar of Societies with the objective of
providing dwelling units to serving and retired Army personnel and their widows
on 'no profit no loss' basis.
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