TMI Blog2015 (3) TMI 942X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... he Attorney General is only a skeletal office which only consists of the appointee and the appointee’s is personal staff. In my view, this cannot be considered as a reason for excluding the applicability of the Act on a public authority. - impugned order is set aside and the matter is remanded to the CIC to consider the other contentions urged by the petitioners before the CIC. - Decided in favour of appellants. - W.P.(C) 1041/2013, W.P.(C) 1665/2013 - - - Dated:- 10-3-2015 - Vibhu Bakhru, J For the Appellant : Pranav Sachdeva and Mr Syed Musaib in W.P.(C) 1041/2013. Mr Rajveer Singh and Mr J.K. Mittal in W.P.(C) 1665/2013. For the Respondents : Jasmeet Singh, CGSC with Ms Kritika Mehra for UOI in W.P.(C) 1041/2013. Mr Vikram Jetly, CGSC for UOI in W.P.(C) 1665/2013. JUDGMENT Vibhu Bakhru,J. 1. The point in issue in these petitions, is whether the Office of Attorney General of India is a 'public authority within the meaning of section 2(h) of the Right to Information Act, 2005 (hereafter the 'RTI Act )? 2. The petitioners impugn an order dated 10.12.2012 (hereinafter referred to as the 'impugned order ) passed by the Central Information Comm ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... Government company. Moreover, here, Section 7 gives to the Government company mentioned in it a statutory recognition, a legislative sanction and status above a mere Government company. If the entity is no more than a company under the Company law or society under the law relating to registered societies or cooperative societies you cannot call it an authority. A ration shop run by a cooperative store financed by government is not an authority, being a mere merchant, not a sharer of State power. 'Authority in law belong to the province of power: 'Authority (in Administrative Law) is a body having jurisdiction in certain matters of a public nature. Therefore, the 'ability conferred upon a person by the law to alter, by his own will directed to that end, the rights, duties; liabilities or other legal relations, either of himself or of other persons must be present ab extra to make a person an 'authority . When the person is an 'agent or instrument of the functions of the State' the power is public. So the search here must be to see whether the Act vests authority, as agent or instrument of the State, to affect the legal relations of oneself or others. ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ct defines Public Authority and reads as under:- (h) public authority means any authority or body or institution of self-government established or constituted,- (a) by or under the Constitution; (b) by any other law made by Parliament; (c) by any other law made by State Legislature; (d) by notification issued or order made by the appropriate Government, and includes any-. i. body owned, controlled or substantially financed; ii. non-Government Organisation substantially financed, directly or indirectly by funds provided by the appropriate Government; 11. Article 76 of the Constitution of India provides for the appointment of the Attorney General for India and reads as under:- 76. Attorney-General for India.- (1) The President shall appoint a person who is qualified to be appointed a Judge of the Supreme Court to be Attorney-General for India. (2) It shall be the duty of the Attorney-General to give advice to the Government of India upon such legal matters, and to perform such other duties of a legal character, as may from time to time be referred or assigned to him by the President, and to discharge the functions conferred on him by or under t ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ephone Balls, other than the telephone calls for official purposes, made from his residential telephone, if they exceed such number of telephone calls or such charges for telephone calls in respect of the residential telephone as the Government of India may, from time to time, determine in this regard; Explanation - For the purpose of this rule Personal staff' means:- (i) in the case of Attorney General and Solicitor General - a Principal Private Secretary in the appropriate grade, a stenographer and a jamadar; (ii) in the case of Additional Solicitor General - a Private Secretary in the appropriate grade, a stenographer and a jamadar . (2) A Law Officer would be provided by the Government of India suitable residential accommodation on payment of usual rent fixed by the Government from time to time. 14. By virtue of Rule 8 of the said Rules, certain restrictions are placed on a Law Officer and the said Rule reads as under:- 8. Restrictions- (1) A Law Officer shall not - (a) hold briefs in any court for any party except the Government of India or the Government of a State or any University, Government School or College, local authority, Public Service C ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ng as a lawyer for the Government of India as is contended by the respondent; the AGI is a constitutional functionary and is also obliged to discharge the functions under the Constitution as well as under any other law. 20. Although, it cannot be disputed that AGI is a constitutional functionary, the point in issue is whether he can be termed as an authority . The respondent has relied heavily on the decisions of the Supreme Court in Sukhdev Singh (supra) and Som Prakash Rekhi (supra) to contend that the AGI cannot be considered as an authority since the office of Attorney General of India does not have the power to alter, by his own will directed to that end, the rights, duties; liabilities or other legal relations, either of himself or of other. 21. I am unable to accept the aforesaid contention, for the reason that the term authority as used in the opening sentence of Section 2(h) of the Act cannot be interpreted in a restrictive sense. The expression authority would also include all persons or bodies that have been conferred a power to perform the functions entrusted to them. Merely because the bulk of the duties of the AGI are advisory, the same would not render the ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... common parlance, the AGI has always been understood as a constitutional authority. 25. The decisions of the Supreme Court in Sukhdev Singh (supra) and Som Prakash Rekhi (supra) are rendered under Article 12 of the Constitution of India and it may not be apposite to apply them for interpreting Section 2(h) of the RTI Act. The question before the Supreme Court in Sukhdev Singh (supra) was whether certain statutory corporations should be considered as State under Article 12 of the Constitution of India. In Som Prakash Rekhi (supra), the Supreme Court was concerned with the issue whether The Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd., a Government Company, was State under the constitution. The Supreme Court held that certain corporation/ companies could be considered as 'other authorities under Article 12 of the Constitution as they acted as instrumentality of the State. One of the reasons that persuaded the Supreme Court to take this view was the functions that were performed by the Corporations in question. In Sukhdev Singh (supra), the Supreme Court observed that a public authority is a body which has public or statutory duties to perform and which performs those duties and car ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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