INDIAN RAILWAY WELFARE ORGANISATION Vs. D.M. GAUTAM

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Is the Indian Railway Welfare Organisation ('IRWO') a public authority within the meaning of Section 2(1)(h) of the Right to Information Act, 2005 ('RTI Act')' The Central Information Commission ('CIC') has in the impugned order answered the said question in the affirmative. The CIC's order is under challenge in the present writ petition by the IRWO.

(2.) The IRWO states that it is a society registered under the Societies Registration Act of 1860. Its principal object is to promote and provide dwelling units all over India to serving and retired railway personnel and their widows on a no profit no loss basis. The dwelling units provided by the IRWO are on self-financing basis. It is stated that the IRWO's memorandum specifies that the sources of funds of the IRWO would be predominantly and chiefly from nationalized and commercial banks. It is submitted that IRWO receives no grant from the Railway Board or the Central Government. It received a loan of Rs. 10 crores from the Ministry of Railways which has since been repaid. A loan of Rs. 6 crores was taken from the Railway public sector undertakings (PSUs) of which only Rs. 1.2 crores remains to be paid. IRWO submits that its affairs are administered by a governing body of which the Member (Staff) Railway Board is the ex-officio Chairman. It is submitted that the IRWO is neither an agent nor an instrumentality of State within the meaning of Article 12 of the Constitution of India. It maintains that there is neither a deep nor a pervasive control of the IRWO by the Indian Railways or the Ministry of Railways. There is no substantial funding of the IRWO either directly or indirectly by funds provided by the appropriate government, i.e the central government.

(3.) In the impugned order, the CIC has highlighted the following factors for concluding that IRWO is a 'public authority' within the meaning of Section 2(1) (h) of the RTI Act :