Vibhu Bakhru, J.

1. The petitioner has filed the present petitions, inter alia, impugning the common orders dated 01.07.2015 & 10.09.2015 (hereafter ‘the impugned orders’) passed by the Central Information Commission (hereafter ‘the CIC’) holding the petitioner to be a public authority within the meaning of Section 2(h) of the Right to Information Act, 2005 (hereafter ‘the RTI Act’).

2. None appears for Shri Deepak Kumar, respondent no. 2 in WP(C) 707/2016 despite notice. It is seen that none has been appearing on behalf of respondent no. 2 in W.P.(C) 707/2016 at the previous hearings as well. In view of the above, this Court does not consider it apposite to defer the hearing of the petitions to await a representation on his behalf.

3. The information sought by the information seekers arrayed as respondent no.2 in both the petitions, under the RTI Act, was denied by the petitioner on the ground that the petitioner was not a ‘public authority’ as defined under Section 2(h) of the RTI Act. The controversy involved in both the matters is common and, therefore, both the petitions are taken up together.

4. The only question to be addressed in the present petitions is whether the peti