Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court on Friday deprecated HMDA for not providing information to the application made under the RTI Act by TPCC president A. Revanth Reddy with regard to the 30-year-long contract to a private firm to collect toll fee and operate the ORR.
The court was perplexed at the attitude of HMDA in moving an injunction suit against Reddy before a civil court, seeking a gag order restraining him from making comments against it over the issue.
Justice Bollam Vijaysen Reddy chided the authority and wanted to know what it thinks of itself. “You are a government agency... not a private entity. Anybody can make comments against government institutions. First of all, it must keep all the transactions and contracts in the public domain.... without that, how can it move the court against individuals who make comments about it,” Justice Vijaysen Reddy asked.
The judge wondered about the fate of the common man when HMDA and the government deny information to a Member of Parliament and that too under the RTI Act.
“Are you not aware of the provisions of the RTI Act? It was enacted to consolidate the fundamental right of ‘freedom of speech’,” the court observed.
The judge was dealing with a petition filed by Revanth Reddy seeking a direction to the state government, HMDA and Hyderabad Growth Corridor Pvt Ltd, to provide him information on his RTI application regarding the operate and transfer (TOT) deal to IRB Infrastructures Developers Ltd for Rs 7,380 crore.
Revanth Reddy filed the RTI application before HMDA on June 14 asking the tender details and the 30-year lease and total revenue earned in 2021-22 and 2022-23. As the authority remained silent on his RTI application, he approached the High Court for its intervention.
Tera Rajnikanth Reddy, counsel for Revanth Reddy, informed the court that the petitioner had even approached the state information commission by filing an appeal. As the commission is defunct, the petitioner approached the concerned officers to get the information. Further, he submitted that the HMDA is hiding the information, despite a mandatory provision to supply information sought by members of parliament or legislature. Further, he brought to the notice of the court about the gag order obtained by HMDA against Revanth Reddy.
Advocate General B.S. Prasad contended that the information of tenders will be in public domain on the completion of the bidding process, which was yet to be completed. He said that Revanth Reddy was making defamatory comments against the governmental body.
Senior counsel A. Venkatesh, representing HMDA, argued that the information will be put in public domain, once the bidding and other procedures are completed.
After hearing all the contentions, the judge made it clear that the information sought by Revanth Reddy, should be furnished as he is a MP.
The advocate general informed the court that there are some parameters laid down in the RTI Act. He sought two weeks to file a detailed counter affidavit.
The court adjourned the matter to August 4.
