Times of India:
Hyderabad: Tuesday, March 18, 2014.
Justice
Ramesh Ranganathan of the AP high court refused to stay the proceedings pending
before the state information commissioner against the Tirumala Tirupati
Devasthanams (TTD) under the Right to Information Act.
The TTD moved
the court challenging the action of the state information commissioner in
summoning certain records of the TTD after a complaint lodged by V Rajagopal of
Tirupati. When the matter came up for hearing, TTD counsel Sivaraju Srinivas
contended that the information commissioner ought not to have entertained
Rajagopal's application as TTD is not a "public authority" under
Section 2(h) of the RTI Act. TTD was not required to maintain the records which
are sought, he said.
He relied on
the judgment of the Supreme Court in Thalappalam Ser. Coop. Bank Ltd v. State
of Kerala and the judgment in Dr. N. Ram Gopal v. Executive Officer, TTD,
Tirupathi, in this regard.
On the
question of whether the TTD falls under the definition of public authority
under the RTI Act or not, the judge said there was no reason to pass an
ex-parte interim order without a counter-affidavit being filed by respondents.
The judge
said that the court has no reason to doubt that the information commissioner
shall consider the objections, if any, made by the petitioner and pass a
reasoned order thereupon, as its orders are subject to judicial review in
proceedings under Article 226 of the Constitution of India. The judge made it
clear that any order passed, or action taken, shall be subject to further
orders in this plea. The case was adjourned for two weeks.
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