CENTRAL INFORMATION COMMISSION

Club building, Opposite Ber Sarai Market, Old JNU Campus, New Delhi- 110067.
Tel: 011 - 26182593/26182594
Email: registryicab@gmail.com
File No : CIC/RM/A/2014/004431

In the matter of:

Sh. Amit Yadav
50 A, Swaroop Park Lajpat Nagar,
Sahibabad, Ghaziabad (U.P.)-261005 ...Appellant

Vs.

Central Public information Officer

M/o Defence
Army Welfare Education Society (AWES)
Adjutant General’s Branch Headquarters
Central Command Lucknow-226002 ..Respondent

Dates
RTI application : 23.10.2013
CPIO reply : 16.11.2013
First Appeal : 24.02.2014
FAA Order : 31.05.2014
Second Appeal dated : 21.05.2014
Date of hearing : 08.09.2016

Information sought:
The appellant had sought details of action taken on his letter.

Grounds for Second Appeal

The CPIO did not provide the desired information.

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Interim Order

Appellant : Present
Respondent : CPIO, Shri J.S. Yadav, Director(legal)

During the hearing the respondent CPIO submitted that Army Welfare Education
Society (AWES) is not a public authority U/S 2(h) of the RTI Act. In support of this
contention the appellant submitted certain papers, court decisions etc. The appellant
submitted that he did not got any information in regard to his RTI application dated
23.10.2013 till date. The appellant stated that AWES should be considered as public
authority. The respondent CPIO also submitted a copy of the decision of Delhi High Court in
support of his submission.

The registry is directed to forward the matter to the competent authority for
constitution of a Division bench, to decide the issue, i.e. whether Army Welfare
Education Society is a public authority or not.
The case is adjourned.

Final Order :
The case file was sent to the competent authority for constitution of a Division
bench, to decide the issue, i.e. whether Army Welfare Education Society is a public authority
or not.
The Information Commissioner, Shri Basant Seth has given his considered
opinion on the case as under:
“Regarding Army Welfare Education Society (AWES)
The Commission in its earlier order dated 06.10.2009 (File No.
CIC/WB/A/2008/000634) –Smt Amba Joshi vs. AWES) has held that AWES is not a
public authority.
The Hon’ble High Court of Punjab & Haryana in its decision dated
20.02.2009 (CWP No. 6834 of 1996-Sudha Soin Vs. Union of India and others) while
holding AWES is not a State within the meaning of Article 12 of the Constitution of
India has observed as under:

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 “On consideration of regulations extracted herein above, it follows that the
State has no control, much less deep and pervasive control, over the respondent-
school or society governing it. Financial assistance is not given by the Government,
rather school is maintained by the interest on corpus grant, tuition fees, other fees,
donations and sundry interests. It is a financially self supporting institution...........”
Similar findings have been returned by the Hon’ble High Court of Delhi in its
decision dated 20/07/2015 (WP No. 5819 of 2015-Shivali Dhillon Vs Managing
Director Army Welfare Education Society (AWES) and ors.).
The Hon’ble Supreme Court in its decision dated 07/10/2013 in the case of
Thalappalam Ser. Coop. Bank Ltd. And others V/S State of Kerala and others (Civil
Appeal No. 9017 of 2013) has held as under:-
“40. The burden to show that a body is owned controlled or substantially
financed or that a non- government organization is substantially financed directly or
indirectly by the funds provided by the appropriate Government is on the applicant
who seeks information..............................”
In the instant matter the appellant has not given any proper justification to
show that AWES falls within the scope within the scope of Section 2 (h) of the RTI Act.
Hence, there is no point of law to be decided by a division bench or reason to
differ with the view taken earlier by a Coordinate bench of this Commission. ”

In view of the above, the Commission agrees with the above observation and finds no
merit in the instant appeal.
The appeal is hereby dismissed.

[Amitava Bhattacharyya]
Information Commissioner

Authenticated true copy

(A.K.Talapatra)
Dy. Registrar

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