The High Court of Karnataka has ruled that 7.5 acres of land given by the Maharaja of Mysore in 1913 to Century Club, situated on the land abutting Cubbon Park in Bengaluru, amounts to “a substantial contribution of financing by the State” to bring the club under the purview of the Right to Information (RTI) Act.
Patron-in-chief
The club was started by then Maharaja of Mysore Narasimha Raja Wadiyar, who was its patron-in-chief, and Sir M. Visvesvaraya. “… if the valuation of the land of 7.5 acres as of today is taken into consideration, the same would run into hundreds of crores if not thousands, and the contribution made by the members of the club, as membership fees or any other head of account, pales into insignificance. In that view of the matter, it is clearly and categorically established that there is a substantial contribution made by the State, i.e. the erstwhile Kingdom of Mysore, through the Maharaja of Mysore”, the court said.
Justice Suraj Govindaraj passed the order while dismissing a petition filed by the club, which had questioned the 2018 order passed by the State Information Commission (SIC).
Land given by govt.
The SIC had said that the club has to be treated as a “public authority” under the RTI Act as it has benefited from the land given by the State government in 1913 while directing the club to provide information under the RTI Act to the public.
The court said that the club had not made any payment to the then Maharaja of Mysore or the Kingdom of Mysore for the land and no specific document has been placed on record to indicate that the said land belonged personally to the Maharaja of Mysore.
Not personal property
“The grant made in the name of the Maharaja of Mysore would also indicate that it is not the personal property of the Maharaja,” the court noted.
On the club’s contention that day-to-day activities, expenses, maintenance etc., are carried out from the contribution of the members, the court said that the fact still remains that without the land, the activities of the club could not be run.
