RTI pertaining to grant of registration to certain companies and their determined scope of work remitted to SEBI

RTI pertaining to grant of registration to certain companies and their determined scope of work remitted to SEBI

The Application, filed by the Appellant (Arun Kumar) under the Right to Information Act, 2005 (RTI Act), was remitted by the Office of the Appellate Authority, Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) under the Right to Information Act, 2005 to the CPIO, SEBI, Mumbai for reconsidering the queries of the appellant's application and to provide a revised response within 15 working days from the date of receipt of the order.

The appellant had filed an application under the RTI Act. The information sought was in the form of 4 questions pertaining to which department of the Indian Government had granted registration to certain companies, date of order for granting the registration and the determined scope of work.

The first one was Golden 24 (registration number-MSCS/CR/594/2012) (Hamara India Credit Cooperative Society Limited); second one being Sahara G Anokha (registration number-MSCS/CR/333/2010) (Sahara Credit Co-operative Society Limited); third was Star 2 (registration number-MSCS/CR/935/2014) (Saharyan Universal Multipurpose Society Limited).

The fourth question was with respect to the amount of security money that had been deposited by the three companies (Golden 24, Sahara G Anokha and Star 2), to the Government of India, to do their work.

The respondent, by a letter responded to the application filed by the appellant. The appellant then filed an appeal against the said response.

The respondent, in response to the queries, informed that Sahara Credit Co-operative Society Ltd.is a Multi-state Co-operative society which falls under the purview of the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Government of India. It was also informed that the complaints received by SEBI against Sahara Credit Co-operative Society Ltd., are forwarded to the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, for appropriate action

In this Appeal, the appellant was not satisfied with the response of the respondent. The appellant, had inter alia submitted that the information provided was incorrect since the respondent had not considered section 6(3) of the RTI Act.

The Appellate Authority of SEBI under the RTI Act has elucidated that the respondent had provided information regarding query number 2 of the application, which pertains to Sahara Credit Co-operative Society Ltd. It had also been affirmed that the appellant had also sought information regarding schemes of two other companies i.e. Hamara India Credit Cooperative Society Limited and Saharyan Universal Multipurpose Society Limited.

The Office of the Appellate Authority under the RTI, SEBI also observed that the respondent neither provided the requested information, nor explained the reasons why the same was not provided.

Therefore, the respondent has been directed to reconsider the request and provide appropriate response to all the queries except the one pertaining to Sahara Credit Co-operative Society Ltd as the same had already been provided.