Zee News: New Delhi: Friday, January 12, 2018.
The Law
Commission is mulling bringing the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI)
under the ambit of RTI to allow people to seek information about the
functioning of the sports body.
According to
a 'working paper' of the panel circulated to its members, the BCCI gets a lot
of government grants, including tax exemptions, and offered subsidised rates to
buy lands for stadia. The BCCI got tax exemptions worth of Rs 2,100 crore in a
ten-year period ending 2007.
"The
report has not yet been finalised and no final view has been taken, but the
working paper mentions all the details including court verdicts which suggest
that the body should come under the ambit of the information law," a
senior functionary of the panel said here.
In July,
2016, the Supreme Court had asked the commission to recommend whether the
cricket board can be brought under the Right to Information Act.
Before the
members of the panel meet to take a final call on the issue, the commission
will seek opinions of income tax experts to help members firm up their views.
The working
paper says that the BCCI can be termed as a 'public authority' under the
existing legal framework.
Last year,
the Central Information Commission too had urged the Committee of
Administrators (CoA) running the BCCI to bring the body under the RTI Act.
The RTI Act
will have to be amended to bring the BCCI under its ambit.
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