Times
of India: New Delhi: Saturday, 22 November 2014.
Cocking a
snook at the Central Information Commission (CIC), none of the six national
political parties were present to respond to summonses of non-compliance. The
CIC had issued a third notice in September this year seeking to know why
political parties had not complied by its June 3 order that recognized them as
public authorities under the RTI Act.
A full bench
of the commission comprising information commissioners Vijai Sharma, Manjula
Parashar and Sharat Sabharwal heard the views of complainants Association of
Democratic Reforms (ADR), activist Subhash Agrawal and intervener RK Jain who
demanded issuing show-cause notice to the political parties.
After the
detailed hearing, where Agrawal and ADR demanded imposition of penalty on the
political parties and compensation, the commission reserved the order.
Jain also
said that CIC should use its power of civil court to summon these parties and
seek explanation for non-implementation of its directives.
Agrawal
demanded maximum penalty under provision of RTI act and providing exemplary
compensation under provision of RTI act. He also urged CIC to recommend to the
central government, election commission, central board of direct taxes (CBDT)
and others concerned, abolition of direct and indirect financing by Union and
state governments to the political parties.
"No
further government-accommodations may be allotted to any political party. Existing
ones may be vacated say within three years...Political parties may be made to
submit their complete fiscal details including incoming and outgoing funds to
election commission for making these public through website," he said.
The ADR said
this is a clear case of open defiance of a statutory authority by the six
political parties and is not conducive to the functioning of a democratic
society. Describing the non-compliance as "open defiance" by
political parties ADR's Jagdeep Chhokar said that the compensation should be
exemplary and meaningful. ADR has demanded a compensation of Rs 44.10 crore
from all 6 political parties calculated at 5% of the party's annual income.
The CIC on
June 3 last year had declared Congress, BJP, CPI, CPI(M), NCP and BSP as public
authorities answerable under RTI act and given them six weeks to comply with
the mandatory requirements under the law for the processing of information
seeking applications. But none of the parties followed the directives.