Mother Dairy comes under RTI, rules HC

New Delhi, Feb 3 (IANS) The Delhi High Court has held that Mother Dairy Fruit and Vegetable Private Ltd., a subsidiary of the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB), is answerable to citizens under the Right to Information (RTI) Act.

Justice Vibhu Bakhru has said that Mother Dairy Fruit and Vegetable Pvt. Ltd. was a public authority as defined under the RTI Act since it was "substantially financed and/or controlled" by the government.

The RTI Act empowers citizens with the right to access information under the control of "public authorities".

The court's decision came while dismissing a plea filed by Mother Dairy Fruit and Vegetable challenging the Central Information Commission's (CIC) April 15, 2011 order that held it to be a public authority.

"The central government retains complete control over NDDB and for all practical purposes, it is an instrumentality of the central government... In the present case, the basic infrastructure of the petitioner's (Mother Dairy) undertakings were promoted by funds provided by the central government," the court said.