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NTADCL is a Public Authority: Madras High Court

Friday 16 April 2010 by Manthan Adhyayan Kendra

New Tiruppur Area Development Corporation Limited (NTADCL) is a Public Authority: Madras High Court

This is regarding a recent significant judgement in the case of Manthan against NTADCL (New Tiruppur Area Development Corporation Limited) in the Madras High Court for disclosure of information under RTI Act.

Some of you may recollect that the Government of Tamil Nadu (GoTN) has privatised the water supply to Tiruppur industrial estate, Tiruppur Municipality (TM) and a number of neighbouring villages and this project - Tiruppur Project, is India’s largest privatised water supply project operated by NTADCL under concession with the GoTN and TM. Manthan had requested some information from NTADCL under the RTI Act, which they had refused stating that they are not a "Public Authority". The Tamil Nadu State Information Commission (TNSIC) upheld Manthan’s appeal. NTADCL had challenged the TNSIC order in the Madras High Court. The main issue was whether it is a public authority or not and can fall under the ambit of RTI.

The Madras High Court finally passed the order on 6th April 2010, upholding our contention, and the State Information Commission’s Order on our RTI application that NTADCL is a Public Authority and has asked the corporation to provide us the information.

It has also upheld two important reasons we had advocated for this. One, that this Public Private Partnership project has support from the Government including funds and guarantees, so it has to be open to RTI Act. Second, that it was delivering a public service - water and sewerage - and therefore has to be accountable under the RTI Act.

This order is important because the principles outlined in the order strengthen the arguments for all public-private-partnership (or privatised) projects especially in water, health, education etc to come under the ambit of RTI.

Manthan was ably represented in the Court by our counsel Mr. PV Ravi Chandran. The case was heard by a single judge bench of Justice K. Chandru. It is likely that the NTADCL will go in appeal, so this not the final word, but it is still a good judgement and important step ahead.

The detailed judgement can be found by clicking on the following PDF icon...