Should the RTI Act be extended to bourses?
March 22, 2008, Deepak Malghan, IndiaTogether
The author discusses the nature and functioning of bourses such as the Bombay Stock Exchange in the context of applicability of the RTI act. They primarily provide a service which mediates between the investor and the companies and he presents a case that even though stock exchanges are run as public limited corporations, between investors - the service of inter-changeability which can be denoted as fungibility. Fungibility can be classified as a social asset and greater transparency is essential for the regulation of an entity such as BSE which is actually a custodian of this asset. It is hoped that the courts handling the ongoing case of the bourses vs the Central Information Commission regarding the applicability of the RTI act to bourses will take cognizance of the above fact and ensure that the bourses are subject to greater scrutiny.