The
New Indian Express: Hyderabad: Monday, 08 September 2014.
In a bid to
arrest property frauds, the Central Information Commission (CIC) has made it
mandatory for the public authorities to disclose the copies of general power of
attorney (GPA) in larger public interest.
GPA is a
public document because the grantee has to use it to convince any prospective
year while disposing of an appeal by RTI applicant Manish Bansal. Accordingly, theRegistration Act 1908 can no more empower the registration department to hide certain documents from public.purchaser. There is no public interest in withholding it, the CIC observed.
Information
Commissioner Madabhushi Sridhar passed these orders on September 2 this
As for facts
of the case, Manish through his RTI application dated April 25, 2013, sought
copies of documents regarding the GPAs relating to a property at Laxmi Nagar,
executed by Krishan Lal in favour of Urmila Gupta etc.
The PIO
concerned has given reply by his letter dated May 6 last year. The appellant
made first appeal before the FAA, who, by his order dated July 17 upheld the
information furnished by the PIO and disposed of the appeal, saying that the
appellant cannot be issued the documents as the department of Delhi Archives is
only custodian of records.
Delhi
Archives denied the copy of GPA to applicant Manish saying that the records
transferred to it by registration department were held for that department and
thus the restrictions of Registration Act would apply.
Claiming that
complete information was not received from the respondent authority, the
appellant filed second appeal before the Commission.
After hearing
the case, the CIC found no reason to accept the stand taken by the respondent
authority that they were only custodians and thus they could not give copies of
the documents. Once they hold the information, the RTI Act mandates that they
should share it with RTI applicants unless the RTI Act exempts them from
disclosure. The contention of the respondents, department of Delhi Archives in
this case, and that of department of Sub-Registrar or Registrar generally
before this Commission was that the Registration Act does not require them to
share a copy of GPA or the Will under Section 57.
Rejecting the
contention of the Delhi Archives, the Commissioner said: “The GPA is a public
document because the grantee has to use it to convince any prospective
purchaser. The purpose of GPA is to authorize another person to deal with the
others i.e. to lease out, sale or mortgage etc., it is an open document and
after being registered it is put in public domain, and when transferred to
Delhi Archives, it continued to be in public domain, disclosure of which was
permitted by the Registration Act also in a limited way”.
“It will be
in the interest of that prospective purchaser to verify the veracity of the
documents, including GPA, before finalizing the deal. Registered GPA is an
authenticated documentation of giving power of attorney to deal with immovable
property, which can be accessed by persons interested in purchasing that
property to rule out encumbrances if any. It is the duty of Registrar office to
give certified copy of such encumbrance or issue ‘no encumbrance certificate’.
The RTI Act made it obligatory to disclose any document which is held by public
authority unless exemptions in Section 8 are attracted”, Prof Sridhar
explained.
While setting
aside the order of first appellate authority, the CIC referred to the judgments
of Supreme Court, Delhi High Court and a circular issued by the Tamil Nadu
government about issuance of certified copy of power of attorney.
The CIC
disposed of the appeal directing the PIO to supply required information to the
appellant within one month from the date of receipt of this order.
DEBATABLE
ISSUE
The
contention of the respondents, department of Delhi Archives in this case, and
that of department of Sub-Registrar or Registrar generally before this
Commission, was that the Registration Act does not require them to share a copy
of GPA or the Will under Section 57.
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