School refuses to reveal minutes of PTA meetings

A prominent city school has refused to give minutes of Parents Teachers Association (PTA) meetings to an RTI activist, saying the information is highly confidential.

Au00a0prominent city school has refused to give minutes ofu00a0 Parents Teachers Association (PTA) meetings to an RTI activist, saying the information is highly confidential.

Rashad Shaikh had asked Loyola High School and Junior College on Pashan Road for the minutes of all PTA meetings held since June 2006. But the school refused to divulge the information.

"The PTA meetings contain details of accounts, budget, and basic planning and functioning of the school. I don't know why the school was reluctant to part with the information," Shaikh said.

Shaikh filed an RTI application on December 30 seeking the information from the school.

Following the RTI application, Education Director Prakash Parab ordered the school to furnish Shaikh with the required details, as they were not within the purview of confidentiality.

No response
Yet, Shaikh did not get any information. He received a letter from Father James Thorat, the public information officer and the principal of the school, stating that the information being sought was confidential and
therefore could not be parted with without the permission of the person it concerned.
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The principal also sent a copy of the letter to Deputy Director of Education Sunil Magar.

"I am unable to understand what can be so confidential in the PTA meetings," said the RTI activist. "It is a clear violation of section 8 (1) (j) of the RTI Act. It is the right of an individual to have access to any information that can be accessed by the State Legislature."

He added, "I have my doubts about the manner in which the whole system is working. Firstly, what was the need for the Appellate Authority to scrutinise the PTA meeting. Secondly, having scrutinised the whole thing and issued orders, why is the school still stonewalling the information?"

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