Sanskriti school cannot escape RTI ambit:CIC

New Delhi, Jan 27 (UNI) The prestigious Sanskriti School of the capital run by civil servants' wives has been asked to set up a system for furnishing information to the public under the Right to Information(RTI) Act.

The Central Information Commission has ruled that the school, which had received substantial government grants, can be classed a 'public authority' and so was under the purview of the RTI Act.

The ruling was given by the CIC while hearing a petition filed by Ms Manju Kumar of Delhi who had sought some information from the principal of the school but was refused on the ground that the institution was not as public authority as defined by the Act.

Appearing before the commission, Principal Gowri Ishwaran, however, accepted that though the Government did not give any grant for the day to day running of the School or for any other activity, it had given a substantial grant for setting up the infrastructure of the School in its initial phase.

Secondly, the wife of the Cabinet Secretary is the Ex-Officio Chairperson of the Board of Management of the School, and also that wives of other Civil Service Officers are on the Board of Management.

The Commission found these two grounds enough to decide that the Sanskriti School did come under the purview of the RTI Act.

Hence, it said, the school authorities should set up the infrastructure for supply of information under the RTI Act and also to respond to the RTI applications.

The Commission directed the Principal to reply to the application filed by Ms Manju S Kumar by February 15.

UNI