Debate over BSE’s status continues

The Central Information Commission (CIC) is considering moving the Supreme Court to club the hearings of petitions filed by the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and the National Stock Exchange (NSE) challenging the applicability of the Right to Information (RTI) Act to stock exchanges.

The BSE challenged in the Bombay High Court a June 2007 order of the CIC, which held that as ‘public authorities’, the stock exchanges were came under the purview of the RTI Act. The NSE challenged the same order in the Delhi High Court.

The court, while hearing BSE’s petition on Monday, adjourned the case for two weeks after CIC’s lawyer Rutuja Ambekar sought time saying CIC’s application to the apex court was still to be finalised.

The CIC order was passed in response to appeals filed by three persons who had been refused information sought under RTI by the Jaipur Stock Exchange, NSE and the BSE respectively. A five-member bench of the CIC had ruled that stock exchanges were ‘public authorities’ as they were amenable to writ jurisdiction and that though registered as public limited companies, they still discharged an important public function as they regulated and controlled the sale and purchase of securities.

Yogesh Mehta, who had filed the original application to CIC against the BSE, sought to intervene in the matter. The BSE opposed Mehta’s intervention saying the question before the court was to determine whether a stock exchange was a public body. Mehta, however, said the outcome of the case would affect his rights.