Deepak Gupta, J. - (1.) Whether non-governmental organisations substantially financed by the appropriate government fall within the ambit of 'public authority' under Section 2(h) of the Right to Information Act, 2005 is the issue for consideration in this case.
(2.) The Right to Information Act (for short 'the Act') was enacted by Parliament in the year 2005, for the purpose of setting out a practical regime of right to information for citizens to secure access to information. The relevant portion of the Objects & Reasons of the Act reads as follows:- "...AND WHEREAS democracy requires an informed citizenry and transparency of information which are vital to its functioning and also to contain corruption and to hold Governments and their instrumentalities accountable to the governed; AND WHEREAS revelation of information in actual practice is likely to conflict with other public interests including efficient operations of the Governments, optimum use of limited fiscal resources and the preservation of confidentiality of sensitive information; AND WHEREAS it is necessary to harmonise these conflicting interests while preserving the paramountcy of the democratic ideal; ..."
(3.) Under the Act, a public authority is required to maintain records in terms of Chapter II and every citizen has the right to get information from the public authority. 'Public authority' is defined in Section 2(h) of the Act which reads as follows:-;