HC seeks Kirti Azad's stand on Hockey India plea against CIC's show cause notice

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday sought response of BJP MP Kirti Azad on Hockey India's plea challenging the Central Information Commission's show cause notice for imposing penalty on the sports body for not providing it certain documents.

Justice Suresh Kait declined however to grant any interim stay on the CIC's October 22 decision, saying he wants to hear the other side -- the Commission and Azad -- before passing any order and listed the matter for hearing on November 1.

CIC had also directed Hockey India (HI) to "provide the complete information sought" by Azad in his application under the RTI Act.

The CIC' direction had come on Azad's September 2015 application under the Right to Information (RTI) Act seeking details of sponsorship amounts, commissions paid, lawyers engaged and litigation expenditure of Hockey India League (HIL) since 2013.

During the proceedings, the commission had asked for documents related to the queries raised by the BJP MP.

HI had placed the documents before the commission in a sealed cover, but information related to consideration amounts paid for sponsorship contracts were redacted.

Displeased over complete information being not provided by HI, the commission issued the show cause notice asking why the maximum penalty be not imposed on the sports body's former president Rajinder Singh for "obstructing the statutory functioning" of CIC.

The commission, in its order, had noted that the crucial information that was denied was the sponsors fee, and also other terms of the contract citing non-disclosure condition.

Apart from the show cause notice, HI has also challenged CIC's direction to disclose details of sponsorship amounts received by HIL for the year 2013 till the latest season, amount of commissions paid along with names of the persons/ agencies to whom it was paid and the expenditure incurred on consultancy and legal expenses of lawyers engaged by the sports body since 2013.