Business Standard: New Delhi: Wednesday,
March 08, 2017.
Information
Commissioner Bimal Julka has recused from the Central Information Commission
(CIC) full bench hearing a complaint against political parties for defying the
RTI Act.
The recusal
will bring the hearing to a stop till Chief Information Commissioner R K Mathur
appoints his substitute.
Besides
Julka, the three-member bench includes Information Commissioners Sridhar
Acharyulu and Sudhir Bhargava.
"I have
a lot of pending work. The workload is heavy, so I have recused from the
bench," Julka told PTI over phone.
The bench is
hearing a complaint by activist R K Jain alleging that his queries to political
parties seeking details of donations, finances, internal elections, etc. Were
not responded to, which is a violation of the Right to Information (RTI) Act.
In his
complaint, Jain has alleged that this was a violation of an earlier full bench
order of the Commission which had declared the Congress and five other national
parties including the BJP, CPI, CPI-M, NCP and the BSP as public authorities
making them answerable under the RTI Act.
While the
Congress, NCP, CPI-M and the BSP are arguing their cases, the BJP has so far
not appeared despite repeated notices.
A full bench
of the Commission headed by the then Chief Information Commissioner, Satyananda
Mishra, had on June 3, 2013 brought six national parties -- the Congress, BJP,
NCP, BSP, CPI and the CPI-M under the ambit of the RTI Act as they are
substantially funded by the government in the form of subsidies, cheap land for
offices and tax concessions.
The order has
neither been stayed nor set aside by any of the high courts or the Supreme
Court, Jain said.
.JPG)
.JPG)
