The Central Information Commission told yesterday that the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is covered under the RTI Act and is answerable to the public under the RTI act.
The CIC which is the top appellate body of RTI decided on the status of BCCI being answerable to the public under Section 2(h) of the RTI Act.
The top appellate has gone through law, orders of the Supreme Court, the Law Commission of India report, submissions of the Central Public Information Officer in the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports to conclude BCCI’s status, nature and functional characteristics.
“The SC has also reaffirmed that the BCCI is the approved’ national-level body holding virtually monopoly rights to organize cricketing events in the country,” said Information Commissioner Sridhar Acharyulu in a 37-page long order.
He also directed the president, secretary and Committee of Administrators to designate deserving officers as central public information officers, central assistant public information officers and first appellate authorities as required under the law, apart from directing the BCCI to set up an online and offline mechanism to receive applications under the RTI act within the next 15 days.
The matter came to light after RTI applicant Ms Geeta Rani was not given a satisfactory response to her RTI letter by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports.