The Hindu: Chennai: Sunday, 9 June 2024.
The Court set an aside an order passed by the T.N. Information Commission directing a cooperative society to disclose details regarding crop loans extended by it
The Madras High Court has
set aside an order passed by Tamil Nadu Information Commission (TNIC) directing
a cooperative society to disclose details regarding the loans extended by it,
and ruled that cooperative societies are not amenable to the Right to Information
(RTI) Act of 2005.
Justice V. Bhavani Subbaroyan said that cooperative societies registered under the Tamil Nadu Cooperative Societies Act of 1983 in the State would not fall under the definition of the term ‘public authority’ as it had been defined under Section 2(h) of the RTI Act of 2005.
The verdict was passed while allowing a writ petition filed by the president of Madhanam Primary Agricultural Cooperative Credit Society in Sirkazhi Taluk, Mayiladuthurai district. The petitioner society had challenged an order passed by the TNIC on May 4, 2022 for disclosure of crop and jewel loan details.
K. Jeeva, a member of the petitioner’s society, had initially filed an RTI application with the Deputy Registrar of Cooperative Societies in Mayiladuthurai seeking details of loans extended to farmers between 2015 and 2021 and information regarding the property documents submitted to secure the loans.
The petitioner wanted the information to establish his claim that the petitioner society had extended a huge number of crop loans on the basis of fake property documents and thereafter waived off those loans on the basis of the decisions taken by the State government to assist indigent farmers.
He stated that in the year 2021-22 alone, a whopping amount of ₹10,292 crore had been disbursed towards crop loans to 14.84 lakh farmers through cooperative societies and that the Centre as well as the State governments provide various incentives too, on payment of the interest amount on such loans.
The RTI applicant wanted to prove that the benefit seldom reaches marginal farmers. However, when he could not get a satisfactory reply from the Deputy Registrar as well as the Joint Registrar, who was the first appellate authority, he filed a second appeal, under the RTI Act, before the TNIC.
The Commission directed the petitioner society to disclose all the information sought for by the applicant and hence the present writ petition. Assailing the TNIC’s order, the society’s counsel R. Shirram Adhethyen argued that a cooperative society was an autonomous body and not a public authority.
He also contended that a cooperative society was not a statutory body performing any public function and therefore it would not fall under the definition of ‘the State’ as defined under Article 12 of the Constitution. He also relied upon a 2013 Supreme Court decision in a similar case that arose from Kerala.
That Supreme Court verdict had been followed by a Division Bench of the Madras High Court too in 2015, he said, and Justice Subbaroyan concurred with him. “In view of the above decisions, it is made clear that a cooperative society registered under the Tamil Nadu Cooperative Societies Act is not bound by the RTI Act,” she wrote.
(Copy of Judgment)
The Court set an aside an order passed by the T.N. Information Commission directing a cooperative society to disclose details regarding crop loans extended by it
Justice V. Bhavani Subbaroyan said that cooperative societies registered under the Tamil Nadu Cooperative Societies Act of 1983 in the State would not fall under the definition of the term ‘public authority’ as it had been defined under Section 2(h) of the RTI Act of 2005.
The verdict was passed while allowing a writ petition filed by the president of Madhanam Primary Agricultural Cooperative Credit Society in Sirkazhi Taluk, Mayiladuthurai district. The petitioner society had challenged an order passed by the TNIC on May 4, 2022 for disclosure of crop and jewel loan details.
K. Jeeva, a member of the petitioner’s society, had initially filed an RTI application with the Deputy Registrar of Cooperative Societies in Mayiladuthurai seeking details of loans extended to farmers between 2015 and 2021 and information regarding the property documents submitted to secure the loans.
The petitioner wanted the information to establish his claim that the petitioner society had extended a huge number of crop loans on the basis of fake property documents and thereafter waived off those loans on the basis of the decisions taken by the State government to assist indigent farmers.
He stated that in the year 2021-22 alone, a whopping amount of ₹10,292 crore had been disbursed towards crop loans to 14.84 lakh farmers through cooperative societies and that the Centre as well as the State governments provide various incentives too, on payment of the interest amount on such loans.
The RTI applicant wanted to prove that the benefit seldom reaches marginal farmers. However, when he could not get a satisfactory reply from the Deputy Registrar as well as the Joint Registrar, who was the first appellate authority, he filed a second appeal, under the RTI Act, before the TNIC.
The Commission directed the petitioner society to disclose all the information sought for by the applicant and hence the present writ petition. Assailing the TNIC’s order, the society’s counsel R. Shirram Adhethyen argued that a cooperative society was an autonomous body and not a public authority.
He also contended that a cooperative society was not a statutory body performing any public function and therefore it would not fall under the definition of ‘the State’ as defined under Article 12 of the Constitution. He also relied upon a 2013 Supreme Court decision in a similar case that arose from Kerala.
That Supreme Court verdict had been followed by a Division Bench of the Madras High Court too in 2015, he said, and Justice Subbaroyan concurred with him. “In view of the above decisions, it is made clear that a cooperative society registered under the Tamil Nadu Cooperative Societies Act is not bound by the RTI Act,” she wrote.
(Copy of Judgment)
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