Economic
Times: New Delhi: Wednesday, 08 July 2015.
The Supreme
Court on Tuesday asked the six national parties to explain why their account
books and donor details should not be disclosed to the public under the Right
to Information Act. The Central Information Commission had ordered, on June 3,
2013, the parties to share such details with information seekers but most of
them ignored the order though they have not challenged it. The six national
parties are BJP, Congress, CPM, CPI, BSP and NCP.
A bench,
comprising Chief Justice HL Dattu, Justice Arun Misra and Justice Amitava Roy,
issued notices to the Centre and the Election Commission too, demanding that
they place their views on the contentious issue before the court. The Congress
and the BJP had vehemently opposed to the CIC order, though the CPI said that
it was not averse to sharing everything except a few things such as donor
details. In a writ filed in the top court, RTI activists Jagdeep S Chhokar for
the Association for Democratic Reforms and Subhas Agrawal, sought court
intervention to have the CIC order implemented in the interests of transparency
and accountability in the functioning of political parties in the country.
Their case was argued by activist lawyer Prashant Bhushan who made out a very
strong case to make political parties accountable and transparent.
"Political
powers have been endowed with several statutory and constitutional powers in
the country. They can disqualify members under the Tenth Schedule for defying
their whip. They get hundred per cent I-T exemptions on all donations made to
them," he argued. "Ultimately they decide the fate of legislators,
decide policies. They form governments and control the legislatures. They are
also substantially funded by the state," Bhushan contended.
The CIC had
declared all political parties as "public authorities" under the RTI,
making it mandatory for them to disclose for public scrutiny details of their
income, expenditure, donations and funding including details of donors making
donations to these parties and their trusts. But political parties continued to
defy the CIC, which does not have powers to initiate contempt proceedings,
forcing activists to move the SC, Bhushan said.