College told to give grant info

The Asian Age: New Delhi: Friday, 27 February 2015.

In a judgement that will set a precedent for colleges to give out information to queries sought under the Right To Information (RTI) Act, the State Information Commissioner (SIC) has directed a South Mumbai college to share details of faculties, students enrolled and the use of grants that are received by the institution from various government bodies for academic and infrastructure purposes.

According to Advocate Dharmendra Mishra who had sought information under RTI from a college based in South Mumbai in 2013, the college had been refusing to part with the information on one pretext or the other, forcing him to approach the SIC after his reminders, as per the norms, failed to elicit satisfactory responses from the college.

“After the first hearing of the SIC, the college provided incomplete information due to which I had to approach the SIC again. In the second appeal, the commissioner Ajit Kumar Jain observed that while the college had provided replies they were insufficient and that the prayer of the appellant was valid and the college had to provide the information as it was an aided institution,” said Mr Mishra.

He added that while the information commissioner asked the college to give detailed information about the faculties and the use of the grants that the college received from various academic authorities, it instructed the college to part with information about enrolled students as per the norms of the university.

“Many aided colleges resort to unscrupulous means and hence this order is in the right direction. It will increase the accountability of the colleges and bring in transparency in their work,” Mr Mishra added.