right of power of attorney holder under RTI

[venusdev]

suppose a person is a member of a society and he has given power of attorney to his son, and his son is not member of the society
1) wheather power of holder ask information under RTI to society.
2)if yes is the power of attorney must have registered power of attorney
3) can society refuse to give information on void power of attorney holder
pls reply

[chanda_s]

in the first place, is the society you have mentioned, a public authority? only if it is, can one apply povisions of RTI.

assuming the society is a public authority, anyone can ask for information under the RTI. one need not hold a power of attorney and ask question on someone else's behalf.

[venusdev]

the society is housing society,
is the housing society is come under rti act ?

[ganpat1956]

Dear venusdev,

Please go through the discussions in the following threads. They will give you a lot of ideas to proceed further.

1. Co-operative Housing Societies

2. RTI helped our Housing Society

[karira]

venusdev,

Power of Atorney holder has been allowed once to seek information under the RTI Act. The circumstances were different than those cited by you. Please see:
http://cic.gov.in/CIC-Orders/Decision_25012007_12.pdf

The information sought relate to the action taken by the respondent as per the agreements signed by the respondent and information seeker who is a responsible functionary of the Company, which has rendered services to the HPCL. In his written submission to the Commission, he has requested for information as a citizen. The information sought by him relate to the settlement of dues as per the said agreement. And, such information should in any case fall under public domain. Denial of information to him mainly on the ground that he is a power of attorney holder is therefore not justified.
==========
Regarding your querry about Housing Society coming under RTI Act or not, please see:

http://cic.gov.in/CIC-Orders/Decision_09102006_15.pdf
Whether the Cooperative Society in question falls within the definition
of public authority or not u/s 2(h) (d) or not is for the Office of Registrar to decide. However, the application in this case has been made to the public authority, the office of Registrar Cooperative Societies. It has been agreed by all parties in the hearing that the information sought, even if the Cooperative Society in question is deemed a private body, it falls within the definition of information u/s 2(f) of the Act, because it is accessible to the public authority, Registrar Cooperative Societies, under the Delhi Cooperative Societies Act, 2003. Whereas the jurisdiction of this Commission concludes with providing the applicant the information he has sought and in this case the information sought has been provided, the Registrar Cooperative Societies is advised to use his authority under the DCS act 2003 to ensure that the East End Cooperative Group Housing Society Ltd. is brought in compliance with the existing law on the subject and make that information available to appellant Shri Bose in accordance with sec. 2(f) of the Act within the shortest possible time.

Another similar decision of the CIC is:

http://cic.gov.in/CIC-Orders/Decision_29062007_29.pdf
“It is accepted by all parties that the school from whom the
information has been sought is not a Public Authority and is indeed
an unaided school. However, the definition of information u/s2 (f)
includes “any private body which can be accessed by public
authority under any other law for the time being in force”. Thus u/s
2(j), ‘Right to Information’ means the Right to Information accessible
under this Act, which would, therefore, include information
accessible by a Public Authority under any law. In this case, the
Delhi Schools Education Act, 1973 clearly applies to all recognized
schools. Information sought regarding teachers in the Mamta
Modern Senior Secondary School, Vikas Puri is, therefore,
established to be accessible to the Director under the Delhi School
Education Act, 1973 and hence to every citizen............."

You can therefore route your applicaion for information through the Registrar of Cooperative Societies and get te relevant information.

It will also be helpful to visit the CIC website (CIC) and do a search for "housing socities". I got a full list of decisions ...all 7 pages of them....relating to this subject. Please read some of them and I am sure you will get the answer to most of your querries posed here, as well as get further ideas for drafting your RTI application (since you haven't mentioned the type of information you are seeking).

Hope this helps.

[jcjain]

thanks for the very detailed information.

[karira]

J C Jain,

Since the last post in this thread was in August 2007 (nearly 8 months ago), I request you to update yourself with the latest information on this and related subjects by using the "search" function available at the top of the page, as well as browse around various sections of the forum.