Tribune India: Shimla: Monday, September 10, 2018.
Himachal Pradesh Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) has rejected the plea of AP Goel University that being a private university and not funded by the government, it was not covered under the RTI Act. The CIC explicitly said that the university was established through an Act passed by the state legislature and is a Public Authority, covered under the RTI Act.
Ruling that the AP Goel University is a public authority, the CIC stated that “it is duty-bound to comply with provisions of the RTI Act not only in terms of notifying Public Information Officers (PIOs) and Appellate Authority, but also in terms of compliance with statutory provisions of the RTI Act” and directed that the information be supplied to the applicant within three weeks free of cost.
The CIC directed that separate notices be issued to the university to show cause as to why penalty be not imposed under section 20 of the RTI Act.
The orders were passed on the plea of RTI activist Rahul Parashar who alleged that the university had denied information regarding the details relating to students enrolled in M Tech batches of 2014-16 and 2015-17 in civil and mechanical engineering courses.
The university had been maintaining that it was a private university and not a public authority as it is not owned, controlled or substantially funded by the government and the nature of control of the government was only “regulatory”.
However, the RTI activist maintained that AP Goel University was well aware that RTI Act and rules were applicable to it and was deliberately denying sharing of information and wasting time of the court and demanded imposition of penalty on the erring institution.
He also quoted the decision of the CIC in Bahara University case wherein it was held that the university was established as state private university by an Act of State Legislature and squarely covered under the definition of “Public Authority” as per the provisions of the RTI Act.
“It is clear that the definition of public authority under section 2(h) of the RTI Act embraces categories of institutions which are set up and other law enacted by the state legislature of Himachal Pradesh and it is not important that such institutions should also be controlled and substantially funded by the government “, the order said.
The CIC order also mentioned that the HP Private Educational Institutions Regulatory Commission had vide its letter of August 2, 2018 indicated that 16 out of 17 private universities in the state, barring the AP Goel university, have designated PIOs and appellate authority.
Expressing satisfaction over the orders of the CIC, Rahul Parashar said that he had filed the application under the RTI Act on July 15, 2016 but the information was denied to him for nearly two years. The CIC order has made it clear that all the private universities in the state covered under RTI Act and cannot deny or conceal the information under the Act.
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