Indian Express: New Delhi: Friday, August 02, 2013.
The Cabinet
Thursday approved amendments to the Right to Information Act (RTI) to ensure
political parties are not categorised as public authorities, a move that
nullifies the directive of the Central Information Commission (CIC) to bring
them under the transparency law.
The CIC had
in June held that six national parties the Congress, BJP, NCP, CPM, CPI and BSP
were substantially funded indirectly by the government and had the character of
a public authority, compelling them to share information under the RTI.
It had
directed parties to appoint public information officers for the same. The order
had made India only the third country in the world after Poland and Nepal to
bring political parties under the ambit of the transparency law.
The Cabinet
observed that the CIC had made a liberal interpretation of Section 2(h) of the
RTI Act, leading to an erroneous conclusion that political parties were public
authorities. It was also pointed out that bringing political parties under the
Act was never visualised when the law was made.
The
Department of Personnel and Training, the nodal department for implementing the
RTI Act, in consultation with the law ministry, moved the amendment, which now
specifically says the definition of public authority does not apply to
political parties registered under Section 29A of the Representation of the
People Act, 1951.