Hindustan Times: Gurgaon:
Wednesday, August 07, 2013.
The Haryana
State Information Commission (SIC) has ruled that Amity University in Manesar
is a public authority and, therefore, it is required to furnish information
under the RTI law.
Amity
University is the first private university in Haryana to be brought under the
purview of the RTI Act and the order is likely to have an impact on other
private institutions in the state as well as country.
The SIC has
asked the university management to appoint a public information officer (PIO)
and the first appellate authority for RTI cases within a month.State
information commissioner JS Kundu, in his order, held the Amity University to
be a public authority on the basis of the fact that it was constituted under an
Act of the Haryana Assembly.
The bench
relied on a December 2012 Punjab State Information Commission’s ruling holding
a private Chandigarh-based university to be a public authority, apart from two
other orders.
RTI activist
and Gurgaon resident Harinder Dhingra had filed a complaint before the Haryana
SIC in April last after Amity did not furnish information about the number of
NRI students at its Manesar branch and details of their security deposits. A
spokesperson for the university said, “Amity abides by the rules and
regulations and follows the law of the land. We will share information whenever
appropriate since we believe in a very transparent system.”
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