Registrar Of Co-Operative Societies Is 'Public Authority', Expected To Provide Information Not Exempted Under RTI Act: Kerala High Court

The court affirmed that while co-operative societies themselves are not public authorities, the Registrar of Co-operative Societies holds that status under the Right to Information Act. This distinction is crucial because it empowers the Registrar to act as an intermediary for transparency. Even though societies remain private entities, the Registrar possesses the administrative and supervisory control necessary to gather information from them, thereby fulfilling the public interest mandated by the RTI framework. A key implication is that a public authority may disclose information held by a private body if it has the legal power to access that data. The decision clarifies that the obligation to provide information extends beyond what is directly in the authority's possession to what it can legally retrieve from entities under its jurisdiction. Consequently, applicants can seek information from the Registrar regarding a society, provided the Registrar has the statutory authority to compel the society to release such details. This ruling is relevant to open data because it expands the scope of accessible information by leveraging existing regulatory hierarchies. It ensures that transparency mechanisms are not blocked by the private nature of the data source, provided a public official has the oversight power to access it. By requiring authorities to actively assess their legal capacity to gather and disclose this information, the decision promotes greater accountability and data availability within the cooperative sector, aligning private organizational data with public oversight goals.

Source: livelaw.in
Published on 2024-07-04

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