The Karnataka High Court has held that Century Club, located on 7.5 acres of land provided by the then Maharaja of Mysore near Cubbon Park in Bengaluru, is a public authority and hence comes under the purview of the Right To Information (RTI) Act. The order was passed on July 8 by a Bench consisting of Justice Suraj Govindaraj, dismissing a petition by the Club.
The Century Club moved the High Court challenging a Karnataka Information Commission ruling in 2018 that ordered the club to provide a lawyer a certified copy of certain records in 2012 under the RTI Act. The club had earlier denied the lawyer, S Umapathy, the records, stating that it was not a “public authority” as defined under the RTI Act.
The club’s counsel argued before the High Court that merely because the initial 7.5 acres of land for the club was provided by the Maharaja in 1913, it would not amount to “substantial financing” by the state government. He argued that, as per Supreme Court precedent, for it to be a case of substantial funding, the body ought to be primarily run by it. On the other hand, the land was granted by the Maharaja as the club’s patron, while the club was run by member dues, the counsel said.
The Bench observed that it was the state’s land and not personal property that was granted. “There is no payment which has been made by the petitioner-club to the Maharaja of Mysore or the Kingdom of Mysore. The grant made in the name of the Maharaja of Mysore would also indicate that it is not the personal property of the Maharaja of Mysore,” the Bench stated.
Umapathy argued that “substantial funding” existed as the club could not exist without the land. He added that as the Maharaja was the head of a princely state, the same would count as a grant made by the government. He also raised the fact that the land in the centre of the city was of considerable value.
Upholding the Karnataka Information Commission’s initial finding, the Bench stated, “if the valuation of the land of 7.5 acres as on today is taken into consideration, the same would run into hundreds of crores if not thousands, the contribution made by the members of the petitioners-club, as membership fees or any other head of account pales into insignificance. In that view of the matter, it is clearly and categorically established that there is a substantial contribution made by the State through the Maharaja of Mysore, who granted 7.5 acres of land to the petitioner-club in 1913, thereby making the provisions of the RTI Act applicable.”