Govt defends amending RTI Act

Times of India: New Delhi: Saturday, August 03, 2013.

Countering the Central Information Commission's order on inclusion of political parties under the ambit of RTI Act, the government on Friday said the order was "flawed" and performing a public function was not a test for a public authority. The government's stout defence came a day after the Cabinet cleared amendments to the RTI Act excluding political parties from its remit.

Justifying the move, law minister Kapil Sibal said, "Political parties are not public authorities. A political party is a voluntary association of persons. People can join or leave a party. We get elected. We are not appointed like officials."

The Cabinet has approved an amendment to Section 2(h) of the Act on the grounds that political parties are not public authorities and, hence, this law does not apply to them. The second amendment says that parties cannot be brought under the Act regardless of any order passed by a court or a tribunal.

Sibal said political parties were only registered and recognized under the Representation of the People Act, 1951. "Political parties will not be able to function (if they are brought within RTI).... While we respect the CIC we are concerned that if this were done it will strike at the root of the political system," he said.

The minister maintained that if political parties are brought under the purview of the Act, they will be flooded with applications seeking information about candidate selection, who dissented or differed on which decision and other such sensitive details. Accepting that more needs to be done to bring about transparency in the functioning of political parties, he indicated that it could not be through RTI.

Asked why the government had not gone to court against the CIC order and instead decided to amend the law, Sibal said since the CIC order was operative, this was a"matter of urgency". Therefore, the government is planning to move a bill to overturn the order, he said. "We wanted aquick resolution," he added.

The government has kept the option of approaching the high court, which is the appellate authority on CIC orders, to seek relief in case there is any further delay.

Asked about the clause exempting sharing of details of all contributions under Rs 20,000, Sibal said the law is there to deal with any party which may be flouting the rules.

Information and broadcasting minister Manish Tewari maintained that small contributions, which may come from people not so welloff and living in rural areas, should also be appreciated. However, the government was evasive on why the identity of those making contributions below Rs 20,000 should not be shared. He maintained that the Election Commission took initiative from time to time to make the political system more transparent and accountable.