TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2008 (8) TMI 464
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....pondent in her letter dated 21-10-2007 requested the appellant to furnish the following details. (i) Who are the contractors for constructing the IT corridor? (ii) Copies of contract agreements with the contractors constructing the IT corridor? (iii) Copies of documents published by TNRDC or other consultants about the IT corridor? The appellant refused to furnish those details. The main ground of objection on which the matter was argued before us is that the appellant is not covered under the RTI Act, inasmuch as it is not a public authority within the meaning of Section 2(h) of the RTI Act. Section 2(h) of the RTI Act defines a public authority as follows:- '2(h) 'public authority' means any authority or body or institution of self-government established or constituted - (a) by or under the Constitution; (b) by any other law made by Parliament; (c) by any other law made by State Legislature; (d) by notification issued or order made by the appropriate Government, and includes any - (i) body owned, controlled or substantially financed; (ii) non-government organization substantially financed, directly or indirectly by funds provided by the appropriate Government.' ....
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....areholder Number % 1. Life Insurance Corporation of India 27,986,818 26.10 2. ORIX Corporation, Japan 25,542,452 23.82 3. Housing Development Finance Corporation Limited 14,049,500 13.10 4. Abu Dhabi Investment Authority 10,972,278 10.23 5. Central Bank of India 9,843,386 09.18 6. State Bank of India 8,237,967 07.68 7. IL&FS Employees' Welfare Trust & Others 9,667,160 09.01 8. UTI-Unit Linked Insurance Plan - UTI Asset Management Co. Pvt. Ltd. 946,000 0.88 Total 107,245,561 100.00 6. From a perusal of the aforesaid share holding of IL&FS it appears that a little less than 50% of the shares are held by public sector undertakings or statutory corporation like LIC created by an Act of Parliament. It also appears that as a result of the amendment to the Articles of Association in 1999 the number of Directors of the company shall comprise two Directors nominated by TIDCO and two Directors nominated by IL&FS. It also appears from the Articles of Association, as amended, vide its Clause 118 that the Managing Director of the appellant-company shall be nominated by an unanimous agreement between IL&FS and TIDCO, for such period and upon such ter....
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....partment, that the appellant-company has estimated the project cost at Rs. 84.41 crores. Out of the said project cost a sum of Rs. 34 crores has been sanctioned to the project by the State Government and the same has been routed through the appellant-company so as to make the project bankable and the appellant company sourced the balance fund of Rs. 50.41 crores through loans at competitive rates and tenor. The terms of the loan given by the State Government to the appellant-company is to be decided later. It also appears from the said G.O. that under ASIDE Scheme, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India has also sanctioned a sum of Rs. 12.5 crores for the appellant-company for this project, and therefore, the State Government's contribution would be to the tune of Rs. 21.5 crores only. As such request was, therefore, made by the Secretary to Government to the CEO of the appellant-company to send necessary proposal in that regard. It also appears from the said G.O. that the State Government modified the Detailed Project Report of the appellant-company and the said modified report has to be brought in the Concession Agreement to be entered into by the Government w....
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....ted and monitored by the government by issuing from time to time various G.Os. referred to herein above. 13. It also appears that of the two promoters of the appellant-company one (TIDCO) is fully owned government Corporation and the other IL&FS has almost 50% shareholding by the government. The Board of the directors is therefore totally controlled by these two promoters and consists of I.A.S. officers and government officials. 14. In the background of this admitted factual position, this Court is of the opinion that on a reasonable interpretation of Section 2(h) of the RTI Act, the appellant-company comes within the meaning of public authority as defined by Section 2(h) of the RTI Act. 15. If we look at the definition of Section 2(h), which has been extracted herein above, it is clear that the appellant-company does not come under the provisions of Section 2(h)(a)(b)(c) or (d), but thereafter Section 2(h)(d) of the definition clause uses the word 'includes'. It is well known that when the word 'includes' is used in an interpretation clause, it is used to enlarge the meaning of the words and phrases occurring in the body of the statute. Reference in this connection can be made ....
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....ng interests while preserving the paramountcy of the democratic ideal. 18. The RTI Act thus attempts to inculcate openness in our democratic republic. It has to be accepted that one of the salience of openness in democracy is an access to information about the functioning of the public authorities. 19. While construing whether the Tamil Nadu Newsprint and Papers Ltd. is a public authority under Section 2(h)(d)(i) of the RTI Act, a learned Judge of this Court, while holding it a public authority made certain pertinent observations in R. Anbazhagan Deputy Manager (Mechanical), Tamil Nadu Newsprint and Papers Ltd. v. The State Information Commission reported in CDJ 2008 MHC 1871. Those observations in para-13 of the judgment run as under: 'Para 13. One of the objectives to this right to information is eradication of ineffective governance and corrupt governance. Corruption is now recognized as violation of human rights. Good transparency practices are essential for good governance and it includes maximum disclosure; obligation to publish; promotion of open government; limited scope of exceptions; minimum costs; processes that facilitate access; open meetings; precedence of disclosu....
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....a fundamental right. So, a legislation, which has been enacted to give effect to right to know, which is one of the basic human rights in today's world, must receive a purposive and broad interpretation. 22. The principle of purposive interpretation has been explained by Chief Justice S.R. Das in Bengal Immunity Co. Ltd. v. State of Bihar, AIR 1955 SC 661. In paragraph 22 at page 674 of the report the learned Chief Justice referred to and adopted the principles in Heydon's case, (1584) 3 Co. Rep 7a(V). Those principles are:- (i) What was the common law before the making of the Act. (ii) What was the mischief and defect for which the common law did not provide. (iii) What remedy the Parliament hath resolved and appointed to cure the disease of the common law, and (iv) The true reason for the remedy. If we go by the aforesaid four principles, it will appear that the constitutional principle of right to know which was virtually a common law principle of universal application was holding the field before the coming into effect of the RTI Act, inasmuch as the Hon'ble Supreme Court has held that the right to know is a part of the fundamental right to speech and expression and also....