Political Parties refuse to come under RTI Order Next Move Sent it to Dust Bin

Political Parties refuse to come under RTI  Order Next Move Sent it to Dust Bin

Right to Information Act gives a power right to  a citizen to seek time-bound information on all matters of governance by paying a fee of Rs. 10.

In a landmark judgment, the Central Information Commission (CIC) has ruled that political parties come within the ambit of the Right to Information Act.

The CIC had in its June 3 order said, “We have no hesitation in concluding that INC/AICC, BJP, CPI(M), CPI, NCP, and BSP have been substantially financed by the Central government and, therefore, they are held to be public authorities under Section 2(h) of the RTI Act.”

Subhash Chandra Aggarwal and Anil Bairwal of the Association of Democratic Reforms
had asked the six political parties to make available details of voluntary financial contributions received by them and the donors’ names and addresses.

The political parties, with the exception of the CPI, however, refused to give away information, claiming that they do not come under the RTI Act.

Then they approached the CIC and requesting that political parties be declared as public authorities.

The commission then directed the presidents and general secretaries of the six political parties to designate CPIOs and the Appellate Authorities at their headquarters in six weeks’ time. “The CPIOs so appointed will respond to the RTI applications extracted in this order in four weeks’ time.”

The CIC also directed the political parties to comply with the provisions of mandatory proactive disclosure by putting those details on their websites.

Openly Political parties rejected this directly and indirectly
the parties have at least a 45-day period before they can be hauled up for a response
on 15th July 16, 2013 the six-week period ended and now more  45  days they got it

The six-week deadline that expired on Monday.
The parties are now open to scrutiny under the Right to Information (RTI) Act.

If an application is filed under the RTI Act and the party fails to answer within the stipulated 30 days limit, an aggrieved person may approach first appellate authority within the party and then CIC for lodging complaint,"

Only one national party, CPI, responded to an RTI query filed by activist S C Agrawal
CPI gave financial details of the last five years and also responded to queries put forward by Agrawal.
But CPI also said that they oppose the CIC order

Congress and BJP both opposed the RTI order 


Left parties -- CPI and CPM -- have made it clear that they would be opposing the RTI implementation on political parties

BSP and NCP have also opposed the RTI

Now what political parties will do to avoid the CIC order

The political parties will show unity and they will bring a proposal to amend the RTI Act during the Monsoon Session of Parliament, which is scheduled to begin from August 5.
The amendment will give protection to political parties by including them under Section 2 of the RTI Act to change definition of a public authority or to put them in the list of exempted organizations (as mentioned in Section 8 of the Act), which include central security and intelligence agencies like RAW, IB and CBI, among others.

This means that when Political parties will pass a new law and will make CIC order an illegal order all political parties will prove that they are same and only one

This way a Historical, order pass by the CIC will indirectly  end up in a dustbin.

Reality views by sm –

Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Tags – RTI Political Parties Reject