Bangalore Mirror: Bangalore: Tuesday,
September 20, 2016.
The
applicant, a professor, had sought details under a faculty improvement
programme.
Private
colleges, take serious note: If you are in receipt of public funding, then you
will be termed a public authority and subject to the rules of Right to
Information. In the latest such case, the state information commission has
declared the renowned SDM College of Engineering a public authority.
At the end of
a hearing - which debated if the private college did or didn't come under the
RTI ambit - the commission ruled in favour of an RTI applicant and appointed a
PIO to SDM College.
Information
had been denied to an applicant in the case, Prof PB Joshi, for over three
years. Joshi in his application in September 2013, had sought information
pertaining to nine of 26 faculty members of SDMCET Dharwad, who had PhDs in
engineering, and whose names had been given to TEQIP (Technical Education
Quality Improvement Programme) for seeking assistance under TEQIP-II.
Joshi had
sought certified copies of date of joining of these faculty members, their
attendance register from January 2012 and certified copies of salary components
credited to their bank accounts.
However, as
information was not provided, he filed his first appeal in December 2013. With
no result, he filed a second appeal in January 2014. The commission which had
taken up the case in April 2015, issued notices to the stakeholders including
the joint director, technical education.
As
information had been delayed, Joshi had also sought damages in form of Rs.3,000
in May 2015.
The then
joint director to the government submitted before the commission the defence
that had been taken by SDM College of Engineering, that it was a private
college and didn't come under the RTI Act.
In a similar
case, it had claimed that it didn't come under the purview of public authority
and that in an identical case, a grant had been given to RV College of
Engineering. Further in its defence, it had maintained that a case was pending
before the High Court and the stay granted was still operative.
However, the
applicant objected to the claim with decisions by the Punjab Information
Commission, Bombay High Court and Delhi High Court, in various cases. Further,
he submitted documents on the state government granting Rs 1 crore to SDM
College of Engineering.
After hearing
both sides, the commission, based on a Supreme Court decision that the
institution was substantially funded by the government, ruled in favour of the
applicant. Calling SDM College a public authority, it ordered that information
be given to the applicant within 30 days before posting the matter to December
14, 2016.
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