Mittal challenged the order before the First Appellate Authority (FAA) which upheld the rejection of application on August 19, 2020, holding that the PM CARES Fund doesn’t fall within the purview of the RTI Act since it is not a public authority as defined under Section 2(h).
This order was then challenged before the CIC, which on April 27, 2022, directed the CPIO to provide information about documents submitted by the Fund with its exemption application and copies of file notings granting the approval.
However, it rejected the request for information regarding exemption applications between April 2019 and March 2020, and details of applications rejected.
The Commission held that the issue of Section 2(h) of the RTI Act has been unnecessarily dragged into the matter, since Mittal has not filed the RTI application before the PM Cares Fund, but with a public authority itself.
Source: Barandbench
