A long-standing dispute over the applicability of the RTI Act to the Blood Donors Cooperative House Building Society has been resolved, with the Appellate Authority of the Cooperative Department, UT Chandigarh, directing that the information must be provided.
The order pertaining to an appeal filed by Ashwani Munjal states that the CPIO had not supplied the information sought by him through an RTI application dated 02.04.2025. During the hearing, the appellant reiterated that the information had not been provided, while the CPIO stated that the information pertained to the Society.
After hearing both sides and examining the records, the Appellate Authority directed the CPIO to collect the required information from the Society and supply it to the appellant within 30 days. The appeal was disposed of accordingly.
The appellant stated that the Office of the Assistant Registrar, Cooperative Societies (ARCS), UT Chandigarh had, for more than 12 years, maintained that the Society did not come under the purview of the RTI Act, 2005. He noted that similar first appeals filed in 2007 and 2012 had been allowed by the then Registrar-cum-Registrar of Cooperative Societies, Chandigarh, but since 2013, the ARCS Office had been denying information by relying on an incorrect interpretation.
He further pointed out that the Supreme Court and various High Courts have held in multiple judgments that when a public authority exercises control over a society, it is obligated to seek and collect information from that society and provide it under the RTI Act.
According to the appellant, this order finally closes a “bad and unfortunate chapter” that continued for over a decade.
