Indian Express: Kochi: Tuesday,
April 14, 2015.
Is the Right
to Information (RTI) Act applicable to the Cochin International Airport Ltd
(CIAL)?
It seems the
court will settle the issue after CIAL filing a petition before the Kerala High
Court challenging the State Information Commission’s order to divulge details
of the airport’s board meetings of a certain period under the RTI Act.
The State Information
Commission, Kerala, in its order on January 31, had asked CIAL to divulge the
minutes of the board meetings of a certain period by April 5, but the airport
company denied the same as the matter was ‘commercial and confidential in
nature.’
In its petition,
CIAL asked the court to quash the State Information Commission’s order as it is
not a government company or a public authority and is “not amenable to the
provisions of the RTI Act.” It contended that the matters discussed in the
board meeting include policy decisions and matters pertaining to financial,
business, commercial, security, labour and other areas. It said the “minutes of
the board meeting would consist of sensitive and confidential commercial
information and trade secrets which are protected under the (RTI) Act itself.
Further being involved in a commercial operation, the petitioner is exempted
from disclosing the same under the provisions of the RTI Act,” the petition
filed by A C K Nair, airport director/executive director, airport operation,
CIAL, said.
The airport
had put forward similar argument earlier when one Antu P V sought information
on the board meetings under RTI. The order of the State Information
Commissioner had asked CIAL to issue those portions of the minutes, “which do
not affect the intellectual property rights and security matters of the
airport.”
In fact, it
was pointed by the counsel that Section
10 (1) of the RTI Act clearly states that “Where a request for access to
information is rejected on the ground that it is in retaliation to information
which is exempted from disclosure, then, notwithstanding anything contained in
the Act, access may be provided to that part of the record which does not
contain any information which is exempt from disclosure under this Act and
which can reasonably to severed from any part that contains exempt
information.”
In its
petition, CIAL also contends that it does not depend or receive any funding
from the government of Kerala, and hence it is not a ‘government company.’
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