Housing societies bound by RTI Act, must share info: Court

The petitioner had argued before the court that cooperative institutions registered under the Maharashtra Cooperative Societies Act, 1960 cannot be treated as `public authority' under sections 2(h) and 8 of the RTI Act.

Cooperative insti tutions, inclu ding around 75,000 housing societies in the Mumbai metropolitan region, can no longer refuse to share records under the Right To Information (RTI) Act with the Aurangabad bench of the Bombay high court ruling that these establishments come under the purview of the transparency legislation.

The two-member bench of Justice Sangitrao Patil and Justice T V Nalawade referred to a Supreme Court verdict in a matter involving the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and held that everything mentioned in the definition of information under the RTI Act needs to be provided by the cooperative institutions. The court also said that the previous interpretation made by it while deciding the case was not correct in view of the apex court's verdict. While disposing of the petition filed by the association of Jalgaon Zilla Urban Cooperative Bank, credit societies and other financial institutions seeking exemption from the RTI Act, the high court ruled that the contention of the cooperative institution, which is a private entity, was dealt with by the Supreme Court. read more...