Bangalore
Mirror: Bangalore: Tuesday, 24 November 2015.
Court says
'Deemed to be Universities' not established nor funded by Union or state
governments cannot be under RTI purview.
The High
Court of Karnataka has ruled that Manipal University (MU) does not come under
the purview of the Right To Information (RTI) Act. It has overturned a ruling
by the Central Information Commission (CIC), New Delhi that went against MU in
this regard. The HC, in its order, has said that it has to accept that MU is a
'Deemed to be University' recognised as such under the UGC Act and 'not
established under the act like a university', which is generally established
under a statute either under a central government act or state government
act."
The HC has
also said that MU cannot be confused with other universities established by the
government. "It is neither controlled nor financed by the state government
and it is certainly a private institution with its own management and control
and therefore, the same cannot be brought under the purview of the definition of
a 'public authority' as contained under the RTI Act," the HC has said.
The HC
judgment came in a petition filed by MU, which is headquartered in Udupi.
Justice Anand Byrareddy heard the petition by MU against an advocate from
Himachal Pradesh and the CIC, which had ordered in July 2009, that RTI was
applicable on MU.
MU's
contention was that it was declared a 'Deemed to be University' under the UGC
Act by a union government notification in 1993, which meant it was declared a
university under an 'Executive Charter' and it was different from universities
established by the legislature.
An advocate,
in 2009, had sought information from the Education Department regarding the
number of students admitted to MU's BPharm in 2005, 2006 and 2007, and how many
of them dropped out during the first year after paying for the entire course.
Information on the total money received from the students for these years was
also sought. When the department sought this information from MU, it replied
that it was not under RTI and did not disclose the information sought.
The matter
reached the CIC which ruled that 'Deemed University' comes within definition of
'public authority' under the RTI Act and directed MU to disclose the details.
MU then approached the HC. It claimed CIC had not appreciated the fact that MU
is neither funded nor owned by the government. The nature of the control of the
government over MU was only regulatory, it contended. MU, being a private
university, prescribes its own fee structure and regulates the functioning of
the institutions at its discretion, the court was told.
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