I had applied to Fee Regulatory Committee for information regarding salary of the teaching staff of a private degree engineering college I served for more than 11 years as professor. The purpose, non-payment of 6th CPC implementation arrears under the reason of insufficient fee-hike, as argued by the Management.
I requested the Fee Regulatory Committee to provide the information regarding projected salary expenditure (as per AICTE norms) v/s actual salary expenditure from Academic Year 2010-11 to 2015-16, to prove that there is huge savings in salary expenditure compared to projected salary expenditure due to insufficient and less qualified staff employed by the College.
The Fee Regulatory Committee invoked Section 11 of RTI Act and asked the College for permission to disclose the information, treating it as Third Party Information.
Was it really necessary for Fee Regulatory Committee to ask for permission from College? Naturally, College denied!
The College is unaided self-financed institute run by private management, registered with Charity Commissioner as a charity trust. At the same time, College is affiliated and governed by the rules and regulations of a recognized State University, approved by AICTE as per the norms.
As I understand, the information supplied to Fee Regulatory Committee by such College can be disclosed to me under RTI, as Fee Regulatory Committee is a Government body. The College, being unaided private institute, will not disclose because College does not want to pay arrears despite of fee hikes granted by Fee Regulatory Committee. In fact, the Fee Regulatory Committee should take action against the College for non-payment of arrears. Instead, I feel, it is protecting College!
Can one suggest the way to get the information I want? Will an Appeal help to get the information?
