HYDERABAD: The Hyderabad High Court has held that religious institutions like temples, churches and mosques, which were not financed/funded by the government, do not fall within the purview of Right to Information Act, 2005. The Court, however, said that since the religious institutions were receiving donations from various sources, it was desirable to amend the Act to bring in its fold all the registered institutions having income over and above a particular limit, to furnish information to achieve the objects of the RTI Act.
Justice Challa Kodanda Ram was allowing a batch of petitions filed by various religious institutions questioning either invocation of the provisions of RTI Act with respect to their organisations or the circulars issued by the governments of AP and Telangana directing the respective institutions to designate and constitute ‘Public Information Officers’ to operationalise the mechanism for providing information sought by the citizens under the 2005 Act.
On the other hand, the State governments submitted that the temples were public religious institutions and the executive officer concerned were responsible for the administrative functions of the temple.