DNA: New Delhi: Friday, May 22, 2015.
Urging the
Supreme Court to declare all the national and regional political parties as
"public authorities" and bring them within the ambit of the Right to
Information (RTI) Act, the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and RTI
activist Mr. Subhash Chandra Agrawal yesterday filed a petition in the Apex
court.
Seeking
transparency and accountability in the functioning of recognised national and
regional political parties, the plea, filed through advocate Prashant Bhushan,
also urged the court to direct all such parties to disclose details regarding
their income and expenditure. The petitioners also sought the entire details of
donations and funding received by the political parties, irrespective of the
amount donated as well as the full details of the donors making donations to
them and to the electoral trusts.
It is to be
noted that currently, political parties are required to disclose information of
only those donors who donate above Rs 20,000. As this is required only to enjoy
tax exemption, those parties who do not submit their contribution reports are
not penalised.
“This
petition has been necessitated by the arrogant defiance of the lawful decision
of the Central Information Commission by six national political parties. The
decision of the Supreme Court will determine whether the law of the land
applies to political parties or are political parties above the law. We
certainly hope the Supreme Court will uphold the law,” said Prof. Jagdeep
Chhokar, Founder Trustee, ADR.
Central
Information Commission (CIC), on June 3, 2013, had declared six national
political parties, namely the INC, BJP, CPI(M), CPI, NCP and BSP to be “public
authorities” under Section 2(h) of the RTI Act, on a complaint filed by ADR and
Mr. Agrawal.
However, none
of the six political parties complied with the said order.
After
22-month-long wait on non-compliance, the CIC on March 16, 2015 declared that
its June 3, 2013 order was “legally correct” and “final”.
The CIC
lamented that the RTI Act does not provide the Commission with adequate powers
to deal with the contempt and non-compliance of its orders by the political
parties.