Corporate warfare gets RTI edge

CORPORATES CAN KNOW: As lines between individual and company blur, CIC has a task at hand.

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New Delhi: In a landmark decision, the Central Information Commission on Monday said corporate entities seeking information should be allowed to use the powerful Right to Information (RTI) Act.

Earlier, RTI could only be used by natural citizens of the country and the CIC word has many wondering if the powerful Act could be used by corporate groups to meet their own ends?

Though the CIC believes that allowing corporate entities to seek information by using RTI could lead to the act being misused, but corporate biggies at the helm of their companies can file an RTI application as representatives of their companies.

“It only means that if an individual applies and gives the address of his company, it means he cannot be denied information on that ground,” clarifies Chief Information Commissioner Wajahat Habibullah.

This fine distinction was made by the CIC after it heard an appeal by the managing director of an electric store in Guwahati, J C Talukdar.

Talukdar’s RTI application had earlier been rejected by the Central Public Works Department in Kolkata.

While the decision opens up RTI to individuals who may represent corporate entities, it also allows corporates a backdoor route of putting an individual face to a question they desperately want to ask the government.

In corporate warfare, this can become quite a handy tool. No doubt the corporates have already read between the lines.

“We welcome this decision by the CIC and am sure that corporate world will use this to the best potential,” says Senior Director CII Rajesh Menon.

So does this mean that a corporate can still misuse the RTI act? The CIC will have to play a balancing act when an individual and the company are the same thing.