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The Muppathadam Service Co-Operative Bank Ltd. v. The State Chief Information Commissioner & Ors.

Civil Appeal · 2026 INSC 1153Decided 26 Oct 2026
Civil Appeal No. 13906 of 2026
Justice J.B. Pardiwala · Justice K. Vinod Chandran

Background

A cooperative bank member filed an RTI request for a construction agreement and General Body Meeting minutes. The Bank argued it was a private entity outside the RTI Act's reach, but the Information Commissioner and High Court upheld the member's right to the documents.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court dismissed the Bank's appeal, holding that under the RTI Act, information "accessible" by a public authority under another law falls within RTI's reach, here, the Registrar of Co-operative Societies' statutory power to access society records brought those records within the Act, even without the Registrar having actual custody. The Court rejected the argument that access requires a prior formal inquiry, since access is precisely what informs that inquiry, and found a Bank member has a legitimate interest in his own society's records unlike an unconnected outsider.

Lesson Learnt

A citizen cannot directly get RTI access to a private cooperative society's internal records, but if a government regulator has statutory power to call for those records, a request can succeed by going through the regulator instead.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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