Army housing organisation comes under RTI Act: CIC

Army Welfare Housing Organisation is nothing but an extension of the Army and comes under the ambit of the Right to Information Act, a full bench of the Central Information Commission has held.
"We hold that the AWHO, though on paper a separate entity, is nothing but an extension of the Army by virtue of being under the all pervasive control of the senior serving Army officers, including the AG. We, therefore, hold that the AWHO is public authority under... The RTI Act," the Commission held.
The Full Bench of the Commission comprising Chief Information Commissioner Satyananda Mishra and Information Commissioners ML Sharma and Vijay Sharma said regular deputation of Army officers to the AWHO on the terms and conditions determined by the Defence Ministry also reinforces the impression that in quintessence the AWHO is nothing but an Army organisation.

AWHO was opposing bringing it under the ambit of the RTI Act arguing that it is a society registered with the Registrar of Societies with the objective of providing dwelling units to serving and retired Army personnel and their widows on 'no profit no loss' basis.
During the hearing, AWHO counsel explained at length that it is a private body where senior army officers are on its board of management are in their ex-officio capacity, having advisory role and do not get any renumeration from the organisation for their services.
"In sum and substance, it is advocate Tewari's contention that despite overwhelming presence of senior Army officers in the Board of Management of the AWHO, it is not controlled either by the Army Headquarters or by the Defence Ministry," the Commission noted in its order.