Bombay High Court rejects Wilson College plea for withholding info under RTI

The Bombay High Court has upheld the decision of the state information commission (SIC), which directed that details of the amount collected by Wilson College by allowing functions at its gymkhana ground. It upheld the RTI provision that principal was a deemed public information officer in this case.

The order was given by Justice M S Sanklecha and Justice A S Oka on April 9 after rejecting a petition by John Wilson Education Society (JWES), which had challenged the SIC order.

Naseer Jahagirdar, had sought details of the amount collected by Wilson College allowing functions at the gymkhana ground. JWES said that the ground is owned by it and that a two bench commission had earlier decided that it is not a public authority. It was due to this reason, the RTI Act was not applicable to it and information cannot be directed to be given. The court noted that in the SIC order, it was stated that the principal of the college is the ex-officio secretary of the JWES and ex-officio chairman of the Wilson College Gymkhana Board, but principal interacted with superintendent of land records.

The court observed that there was no reason to disturb the findings and order of SIC directing that information should be provided to the applicant. It hence rejected the petition challenging the SIC order which directed that information of amount collected through functions to be provided.