The Maldives Transport and Contracting Company (MTCC) has lost a constitutional case filed at the Supreme Court for a ruling to declare that government companies do not need to disclose information under the right to information (RTI) law.
The Information Commissioner’s Office regulations state that companies must disclose information under the law. MTCC first filed a case at the High Court to strike down the provision in section 61 of the regulations. But the High Court ruled against MTCC and the company appealed the judgment.
MTCC’s main argument concerned the broad definition of state institutions in the regulations with reference to Article 71 of the RTI Act. The Information Commission does not have the authority to interpret the provision as such, MTCC contended.
The five Supreme Court justices who heard the appeal ruled unanimously that any institution that is entrusted with a state responsibility or provided with a budget or assistance from the state budget is included in the institutions stated in the provision.
Most state-owned companies were created for the purpose of providing public services in a manner that does not burden the public, Justice Husnu Stood said, delivering the unanimous opinion.
The Information Commission, which has the main responsibility under the law, has the discretion to compile a list of places that bears a state responsibility and receives a budget or assistance from the state budget in a regulation enacted by the commission, Justice Stood said.
The other judges on the bench that heard the case were Justices Dr. Mohamed Ibrahim, who presided over the case, and Aisha Shujoon, Ali Rasheed and Azmirelda Zahir.
