Cooperative Society Registrar Can Collect Information From Society & Furnish It To RTI Applicant If It's Accessible & Not Exempted U/S. 8 RTI Act: Kerala HC

The Kerala High Court held that if the documents and information are accessible to the Registrar of the Co-operative Society and are not exempted from disclosure under Section 8 of the Right to Information Act, 2005 (RTI Act), the Registrar can collect such information from the Society and furnish it to RTI applicant.

The Court held thus in a Writ Petition filed by The Muppathadam Service Co-Operative Bank Ltd. against the Order of the State Information Commission (SIC) by which it directed the State Public Information Officer and Deputy Registrar (Administration), Office of the Joint Registrar Co-operative Societies to give information sought by the Applicant.

A Single Bench of Justice D.K. Singh observed, “The question which needs to be considered is whether the Registrar of the Co-operative Society would have access to the documents/information of the Petitioner-Society, which have been sought for by the fourth respondent. If the documents and information are accessible to the Registrar of the Co-operative Society and are not exempted from disclosure under Section 8 of the Right to Information Act, the Registrar can collect such information from the Society, which he is otherwise empowered to collect under the Kerala Co-operative Societies Act and furnish that information to the applicant.”

Senior Advocates P. Deepak, P. Ravindran, and Advocate Sabu M.R. appeared for the Petitioner while Advocate (Standing Counsel) M. Ajay and Government Pleader V.S. Sreejith appeared for the Respondent. P.R. Ramachandran was the party-in-person.

In this case, the Petitioner was a Cooperative Society registered under the provisions of the Co-operative Societies Act, 1969. The Respondent P.R. Ramachandran was a member of the Petitioner society who submitted an Application seeking information in respect of an agreement entered into between the Petitioner and a Labour Contract Society involved in the construction business. The Petitioner had given a contract for the construction of a building and the Respondent also sought a copy of the minutes of the last General Body Meeting of the Society.

The Information Officer, vide Order informed the Respondent that as the documents were not in their possession, it was not possible to provide copies of those documents. The Respondent filed an Appeal before the Joint Registrar but the Order passed by the Public Information Officer was affirmed and the Appeal was rejected. Thereafter, he approached the High Court but his Writ Petition was dismissed. Hence, he approached the Division Bench which disposed of the Appeal directing the State Chief Information Commissioner to reconsider the Appeal. On remand, the State Chief Information Commissioner passed the impugned Order. Resultantly, this was challenged before the High Court.

The High Court after hearing the contentions of the counsel, noted, “A Division Bench of this Court in Kunnathunad Taluk Primary Co-operative Agricultural and Rural Development Bank Limited held the Registrar can gather information from a Society to the extent permitted by law, but he is not obliged to disclose the information which is exempted from disclosure under Section 8 of the Act.”

The Court added that the Registrar can collect such information from the Society, which he is otherwise empowered to collect under the Kerala Cooperative Societies Act and furnish to the Applicant that information, subject to the limitations and restrictions under the Act.

"... it can certainly be held that the information sought by the applicant is accessible by the Registrar of the Co-operative Societies and the information desired by the applicant is not barred under Section 8 of the Right to Information Act”, it held.

The Court said that, there is no confidentiality involved in either the construction agreement or the copy of the minutes of the General Body Meeting of the Petitioner-Society to deny the information and hence, the Registrar of the Societies would have access to these documents.

"The minutes of the meeting would not come under any of the exceptions as enumerated in Section 8 of the Right to Information Act. Neither the agreement nor the minutes of the meeting sought by the fourth respondent would breach any commercial secret relating to confidentiality”, it also noted.

Accordingly, the High Court dismissed the Writ Petition.

Cause Title- The Muppathadam Service Co-Operative Bank Ltd. v. The State Chief Information Commissioner & Ors. (Neutral Citation: 2024:KER:90020)

Appearance:

Petitioner: Senior Advocates P. Deepak, P. Ravindran, Advocates Sabu M.R., Lakshmi Ramadas, Aparna Rajan, and Sreedhar Ravindran.

Respondents: Advocate (Standing Counsel) M. Ajay and Government Pleader V.S. Sreejith.

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