HC stays Central Information Commission directive

New Delhi, May 7 : In an interim order, the Delhi High Court has stayed execution of the directives of the Central Information Commission (CIS) to include Delhi private electricity suppliers under the ambit of Right to Information (RTI) Act exposing their functioning to the public scrutiny.

After the directive of the CIS, the State Government had asked the discoms-- BSES Rajdhani Power, BSES Yamuna Power, North Delhi Power-- to appoint public information officers and Appellate Authority in their respective organisations as required under the RTI Act.

Justice Pradeep Nandrajog stayed the operation of the impugned order of March 3, 2006 and the consequential order passed by the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission on April 3, 2006.

Filing their respective petitions, the discoms said they didn't fall under the purview as they were not substantially financed by the Centre or the Delhi Government.

Besides, none of the three privatised discoms were notified in the schedules to the Delhi RTI Act, as was done in the case of power department of the state government, DERC, Genco and Transco, said the petitions filed through Counsel Amit Kapur and Mansoor Ali Shoket.

The issue before the court was to determine 'control' and being 'substantially financed' in terms of Section 2(h)(d)(i) of the RTI Act which came into effect on October 12, 2005.

They said 'Control' would mean majority on the board of directors to influence the policies and working of the company and 'Substantially financed' would mean working capital apart from equity flowing in to sustain the activities undertaken by the company, the BSES counsel contended, adding that the working capital and revenue did not flow from Delhi Power Supply Co Ltd or State Government.

All these discoms are joint ventures with 51 per cent shares with private operators and 49 per cent with the government, said the petition.

UNI