Goemkarponn Desk
PANAJI: According to the ruling of the Bombay High Court in Goa, communities are not regarded as public authority for the purposes of the Right to Information (RTI) Act.
Additionally, the Goa Information Commission’s order compelling a comunidade to furnish information in accordance with the RTI Act was nullified as void by the court.
The issue revolved around a ruling by the First Appellate Authority on November 23, 2017, which stated that the community of Pilerne’s clerk, or “escrivao,” was considered a Public Information Officer (PIO) for the purposes of the RTI Act.
But the High Court made it clear that the community is not covered by the RTI only because records are being held by the clerk or because the administrator can access the information.
A comunidade must be categorized as a public authority as specified by Section 2(h) of the Act in order for the RTI Act to be applicable. The court stated that only in that case would the need to designate a PIO under Section 5 of the RTI Act arise.
The High Court ruled that the provisions of Sections 5(4) and 5(5), which deal with the administrator asking the clerk for help, do not apply in this case since comunidades are not considered public bodies.
