Dear Mr.Roy, It seems the Commissioner took a right decision in imposing penalty against the private colleges affiliated to Delhi University. Of course, he could have in his discretion given a speaking exposition on how private colleges affiliated to DU are considered 'public authorities' within the meaning of definition thereof provided in Section 2(h) of RTI Act. According to this provision, any institution 'established or constituted' under any law made by Parliament is a public authority. As per this provision, Delhi University is a public authority since it is constituted under a Central law called Delhi University Act 1922 (No.8 of 1922). Once the DU is accepted as a public authority, the Colleges affiliated to it become necessarily the Public Authorities and are liable to appoint PIOs, APIOs and Appellate Authorities just as the DU or the Government run Colleges are. Because Section 5(1) says inter alia, "Every Public Authority shall . . . . . . designate as many officers as the Central Public Information Officers . . .. in all its administrative units or offices under it as may be necessary to provide information to persons requesting for information under this Act". Is there any dispute as to whether Aurobindo College, an affiliate of DU is a public authority? I think there shouldn't be any in view of the just quoted Section 5(1). And once the said College is legally covered under the purview of RTI Act as a Public Authority, it is bound not only to appoint PIOs and APIOs etc as per Section 5(1), but to carry out other obligations too including those under Section 4, since the opening words of Section 4 are "Every public authority . . . . . ". Thus it seems, the concerned Commissioner has not done anything wrong by imposing penalty against an affiliate of DU on the grounds on non-compliance of Section4 and more so when the concerned institution was previously directed by the Commission to comply with the same. Chitta Behera, Cuttack, Orissa
--- On Sat, 28/11/09, sarbajitr <[email protected]> wrote: From: sarbajitr <[email protected]> Subject: [rti_india] SPECIAL NOTICE: Dear Mr Habibullah - Is Shailesh Gandhi an idiot ?? To: [email protected] Date: Saturday, 28 November, 2009, 11:34 PM http://www.dnaindia .com/academy/ report_principal s-of-9-du- colleges- penalised- for-rti-non- compliance_ 1317744 http://cic.gov. in/CIC-Orders/ SG-24112009- 18.pdf (and 8 other decisions like this? on complaint of some Rajiv Lala) This idiot Commissioner obviously doesn't possess a copy of the RTI Act. How is the Principal of this private college a PIO? Don't you know that only PIOs are liable to penalty ? On what basis have you computed the Rs.5,000 penalty - you stupid f**ker ?. Is Aurobindo College a public authority - settle that first you bloody fool! After that settle if they must appoint a PIO and put the neccesary RTI infrastructure in place you moron!!! This is a list of all DU colleges. Why don't you ask St Stephens College to appoint PIOs ?? BTW: What is a "demi-official letter?" Does anyone want more MGO appointees appointed to the CIC? Isn't one bad enough !!! The INTERNET now has a personality. YOURS! See your Yahoo! Homepage. http://in.yahoo.com/
