Co-op Member Can Get Bank Documents Under RTI: Supreme Court

Co-operative Bank Member Can Get Building Contract, General Body Minutes Under RTI via Registrar: Supreme Court

Published: 26 October 2026 · NyayVidhan

The Supreme Court held that a member of a co-operative bank can obtain, under the Right to Information Act, the bank's building contract with a labour co-operative society and the minutes of its last General Body Meeting through the Joint Registrar, whose statutory access to a society's books under the Kerala Co-operative Societies Act needs no prior inquiry. Dismissing the bank's appeals, it directed the Joint Registrar to call for both documents within two weeks and supply them (paras 12-16).

Key holdings

Information under Section 2(f) covers not only material a public authority holds but also private-body material it can access under any law (para 12).

Prior satisfaction is needed only to start an inquiry under Section 65; access to the books comes first, since without it no satisfaction can be reached (paras 13-14).

A building contract awarded after the bid is over carries no commercial confidence or trade secret protected by Section 8(1)(d) (para 8).

A member cannot be refused the society's contract and General Body minutes as personal information, though a stranger may be (paras 8-9).

Judgment digest by NyayVidhan: a summary of the court's judgment, not its text. The judgment itself is the authoritative version.

Brief Facts

A member of the appellant bank applied under the RTI Act to the Joint Registrar (General) of Co-operative Societies for the bank's construction agreement with a Labour Co-operative Society and the minutes of its last General Body Meeting. His first application failed up to the State Information Commissioner and before a Single Judge, but the High Court's Division Bench directed reconsideration. In the second round the Commissioner, the Single Judge and the Division Bench upheld his right to the documents, and the bank appealed (para 2). The Division Bench read ‘can access’ in Section 2(f) as covering documents the Registrar may obtain from a private body, not only those in his custody (para 6).

Court's Findings

The contract and the minutes involve no trade secret, intellectual property or commercial confidence under Section 8(1)(d), since the bid is over and the contract awarded; nor are they personal information under Section 8(1)(j) when a member seeks them (paras 7-8). A stranger to the society may be refused, because personal information extends to a private entity, but a member cannot be denied on the ground that the information is personal to the society or involves no public activity (para 9). Thalappalam preserves the Registrar's right to seek information from societies under his control; there, members' deposit details were exempt (para 10). Under Section 2(f), information includes material relating to a private body that a public authority can access under any other law, and such statutory access cannot be fettered; Subhash Chandra Agarwal's reference to pre-imposed conditions does not hold otherwise (paras 11-13). Prior satisfaction is needed only to initiate an inquiry under Section 65; the Registrar cannot reach that satisfaction without access, which Section 65(2) gives him at all reasonable times (paras 13-14). Section 66 also lets him inspect the books as often as he considers necessary (para 15).

Legal Principle

Under Section 2(f) of the RTI Act, information includes material relating to a private body that a public authority can access by statute. The Registrar's access to a co-operative society's books under Sections 65(2) and 66 of the Kerala Co-operative Societies Act does not depend on a prior satisfaction to hold an inquiry (paras 12-15).

NyayVidhan's view · Practice note

Why It Matters

For co-operative society members, an RTI request for the society's documents does not depend on a pending inquiry: where the Registrar has statutory power to inspect a society's books, those documents are information he can call for and supply (paras 12-15). Information officers in the Registrar's office should not refuse a member merely because no inquiry is pending or the society is not a public authority (paras 13-14). Societies may still invoke the Section 8(1) exemptions, but a member's request for contract terms and General Body minutes is not personal information, while a stranger's identical request may be (paras 8-10). See also Mahipal Singh Sihag, a Rajasthan High Court ruling on the right to information and privacy.

Editorial comment by the NyayVidhan Editorial Desk. It is not part of the Court's judgment and is not legal advice.

Precedents Relied Upon

Thalappalam Service Cooperative Bank Limited and Others v. State of Kerala and Others (2013) 16 SCC 82
Explained Discussed at ¶ 3, 5, 10
Read as preserving the Registrar's right to seek information from co-operative societies under his supervision or control for an RTI applicant, unless barred by Section 8(1); there, members' deposit details were exempt under Section 8(1)(j).
Central Public Information Officer, Supreme Court of India v. Subhash Chandra Agarwal (2020) 5 SCC 481
Relied Upon Discussed at ¶ 3, 5, 12
Extract relied on: information under the control of a public authority includes information relating to a private body that it can access under any other law; read as not fettering statutory access by pre-imposed conditions.
CBSE v. Aditya Bandopadhyay (2011) 8 SCC 497
Relied Upon Discussed at ¶ 7
Extract relied on: citizens' right to information held by or under the control of public authorities, subject to the exemptions in Sections 8, 9 and 24; read before testing clauses (d) and (j) of Section 8(1).