St Joseph's refuses response to RTI query

A prestigious government-aided educational institution has come out with a strange excuse to dodge information under the Right to Information (RTI) Act.

Kalidas Reddy, a resident of Ulsoor, had filed an RTI application in May this year seeking information from St Joseph's College of Commerce about the admission of a girl under the disability quota.

Instead of providing information, the college asked Reddy to prove whether he was a citizen of India or not.

 The application was filed after the college denied her admission under the three per cent compulsory quota for differently-abled students pursuing higher studies.

Reddy had also complained to the Karnataka Disability Commission, which took up the case.

Reddy said, “The girl had filed applications in two prestigious pre-university colleges and both of them had initially denied her admission. After complaining to the Disability Commission, one of the colleges gave her admission while there was no response from St Joseph College.”

Almost 25 days after filing the RTI application, the principal of the St Joseph College Dr Daniel Fernandes returned to him the RTI application along with an Indian Postal Order of Rs 10 asking him to prove whether he was a citizen of India. Reddy has now approached the Karnataka Information Commission with a complaint against the college.