DNA: Mumbai: Thursday, May 12, 2016.
The
Agriculture Product Market Committee, which engages in wholesale trading, was
declared a public authority by the information commission. The order for the
same was given on April 20. It was given by a joint bench of Thanksy Thekkekara,
state information commissioner (Konkan bench) and Ajitkumar Jain, state
information commissioner (Brihanmumbai bench). The order comes after an earlier
order by the Bombay High Court which stated that APMC is a public authority.
The order was
given after a Right to Information (RTI) application was made by Thane resident
Sharad Dhumal. Dhumal in his application had sought information about the
government audit done for the period between 2006 and 2014. He was denied
information by the public information officer. While the first appellate
authority did not give any order during the hearing, the public information
officer, who is the secretary of APMC, contented that it is not a public
authority and hence RTI does not apply to it. He even attached an earlier
Aurangabad bench of information commission order which stated that it is not a
public authority.
During the
hearing, the commissioners stated that as per the definition of public
authority under the RTI Act, APMC was established or constituted by an act of
government order and hence it was a public authority. It went on to state that
the APMC appoint a public information officer (PIO) and first appellate
authority (FAA) and provide the information to the applicant.
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