The stand of BrahMos Aerospace Thiruvananthapuram Ltd (BATL) that it doesn’t come under the ambit of the Right to Information Act, 2005, has misfired. The State Information Commission has ruled that the missile firm indeed comes under the scope of the Act and has instructed it to appoint a Public Information Officer.
“The BATL, though registered under the Companies Act, has its majority of assets and funds from the Kerala Government. The Industrial Tribunal as well as the Labour Commissioner has found that the company comes under the jurisdiction of the Kerala Government. In the circumstances, only the State Information Commission, Kerala, can be the appropriate commission with jurisdiction over the impugned company in this case,” State Information Commissioner M N Gunavardhanan said in a February-24 order.
The order came on a complaint filed by J Udaya Bhanu of Kollam saying that he was denied information by the BATL management on the grounds that the company did not fall within the range of the Act.
“In its order, the Commission particularly noted that the company cannot deny, “by mere jugglery of words,” that it is running on government funds.
On its part the BATL management had stated that it was not a Public Authority as defined by Section 2(h) of the RTI Act. It neither is an NGO financed by the government. “Here, the question arises where the funds of the company comes from. It says it is a company registered under the Companies Act.
It says it is a subsidiary of a joint venture of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) of the Ministry of Defence and the Russian Federation.
The company is contradicting itself in the same paragraph. The funds for the MoD comes from the public exchequer,” the Commission noted.
The BATL was formed in 2007 by a ‘hand-over’ of the State Government-run Kerala Hi-Tech Industries Ltd (KELTEC) for manufacturing the Indo-Russian BrahMos cruise missiles. Studying the conditions of the take-over, the Commission has concluded that “substantial interest” of the State Government was still intact in the company.
“Handing over does not mean transfer of title. No registration under the TP (Transfer of Property) Act has been done. No land assignment has been authorised under the Land Assignment Act. Hence the land of the BATL is virtually owned by the Government of Kerala even today,” the Commission said.
In this sense, the Commission’s order is a landmark one since a question mark had been hanging over the status of the company.
The Commission has asked the BATL management to file a affidavit within 30 days, showing that it has followed the Commission’s instructions.