Group housing societies must share records under RTI of Registrar can access them: Haryana SIC

In an order having implications on group housing societies across the state of Haryana, State Information Commission (SIC) has made it clear that if the record of any group housing society is accessible to the office of the Registrar of Cooperative Societies, the same should be provided under the RTI Act. As of now, the group housing societies have been taking the plea that they are not covered under the RTI Act as they are not getting any aide or support from the state, thus do not come under the RTI ambit.

“Once the respondent public authority (Registrar, Co-operative Societies) has the legal authority to access the information from the society, the same cannot be denied to the appellant merely on the ground that the society is not a public authority under Section 2(h) of the RTI Act,” the commission has held.

The bench of Dr Ajay Kumar Sura, State Information Commission, has passed these orders while directing the office of the Registrar of Cooperative Societies Haryana to provide the complete “unedited videography” of the entire proceedings of General Body Meeting of New Haryana Officers Cooperative Group Housing Society Ltd., which has retired IAS/IPS and HCS officers as its members. The commission said that the Registrar is empowered to obtain information from a cooperative society over which it exercises supervisory or administrative control.

In this case, retired District and Sessions Judge, Kuldip Jain, vide his RTI application dated September 5, 2023, had sought a certified copy of the unedited video of the entire proceedings of the meeting of New Haryana Officers Cooperative Group Housing Society Ltd., Panchkula, held on July 8, 2023, and also the minutes of the meeting from the Registrar, Cooperative Societies, Haryana.

The minutes of meeting were furnished to Jain but not the video.

The society declined to furnish the copy of videography on the ground that it was the property of the society and further contended that it “does not fall within the ambit of ‘public authority’ as defined under Section 2(h) of the RTI Act, 2005.”

During the hearing on January 9, 2025, Satwanti Ahlawat, retired IAS and then president of the society, submitted that their society “is fully owned, controlled and financed by its members, not by the Haryana Government; therefore, it does not come within the purview of the RTI Act.” In another hearing on October 8, 2025, the subsequent president of the society, Renu Phulia, retired IAS, in her comments, stated that the information sought concerned “personal discussion of members related to the affairs” of the society, which had no public-interest connection; therefore, they couldn’t be directed to provide such information.

After hearing the arguments, the commission observed, “…the issue in the present case is not whether the society itself is a public authority, but whether the information sought by the appellant (Jain) is accessible to the office of Registrar Cooperative Societies.”

SIC added that the Registrar, Co-operative Societies, “exercises statutory, supervisory and regulatory control over the affairs of Cooperative Societies and had admittedly directed the society, vide latter dated August 7, 2023, to furnish the copy of complete videography of General Body Meeting”.

“This itself establishes that the information can be called for by the Registrar from the society in exercise of statutory powers. The commission further observes that under Section 2(f) of the RTI Act, 2005, the term ‘information’ includes information relating to any private body which can be accessed by a public authority under any other law for the time being in force,” said the order.

The order further stated that if the society failed to comply, the Registrar should initiate appropriate action under the Haryana Cooperative Societies Act and related rules.