(i) Limitation to ‘body corporate’ and ‘commercial or professional activities’.
Section 43A - only APPLIES to a ‘body corporate’, which ‘means any company and includes a firm, SOLE PROPRIETORSHIP or other association of individuals engaged in commercial or professional activities’.
Religious and social organizations, including charities, whose activities are not classified as ‘Commercial’ will also be a substantial exclusion from the scope of the law.
Although there are some public sector bodies which come within this, such as state-owned corporations, there is very limited coverage of the public sector.
All of India's right to information laws contained exemptions provisions. In the Central Act, section 8(1) lists all of the exemptions. Below is a general discussion of the exemption provisions:
• National Security or Sovereignty:
• National Economic Interests:
• Relations with Foreign States:
• Law Enforcement and the Judicial Process:
• Cabinet and Other Decision-Making Documents:
• Trade Secrets and Commercial Confidentiality:
• Personal Privacy:
• Individual Safety:
It is extremely positive that the Central Act makes all of the exemptions contained in section 8(1) subject to a "Public Interest Override" (see section 8(2) of the Central Act). What this means is that even where requested information is covered by an exemption, the information should still be disclosed to the applicant if the public interest in the specific case requires it.
Only religious, social and charitable organisations and non-commercial organisations (such as government agencies) that do not engage in activities classified as "commercial" (hence not within the scope of "body corporate" in section 43A) are exempted from section 43A of the IT Act.
Only activities that are not classified as "commercial" are not within the scope of "body corporate" in section 43A and hence exempt from section 43A.
Religious and social, charitable organisations and government agencies do not engage in commercial activities hence are exempt.
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Bhimesh
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