Hindustan Times: New Delhi: Thursday,
October 24, 2013.
The
government is in a fix over its bill to amend the RTI Act for keeping political
parties out of it, following contrary stands taken by its senior officials and
the attorney general before a parliamentary panel.
In
their deposition before the parliamentary standing committee on personnel,
public grievance law and justice, senior officials, including law secretary BA
Aggarwal defended the RTI (Amendment) Bill, 2013, but attorney general GE
Vahanvati opposed it.
The
government’s view articulated at the meeting on Tuesday was that the June 3
order of Central Information Commission (CIC), which stated that political
parties come within the ambit of the RTI Act was not correct.
The
officials pointed out that the proposed bill was important to provide
protection to the political parties so that their functioning is not hampered
by a flood of unwanted RTI applications.
The
officials are learnt to have explained the rationale behind the bill introduced
in the Lok Sabha during the monsoon session of Parliament. “Declaring a
political party as public authority under the RTI Act was not envisaged by
Parliament. Further, the political rivals may misuse the provisions of the Act,
thereby adversely affecting the functioning of the political parties,” states
the bill.
The
officials informed the panel that the government has decided to amend the RTI
Act to remove the adverse effects of the CIC decision.
In
his deposition, Vahanvati is learnt to have told the panel that in case the
political parties felt aggrieved by the CIC order, they should have challenged
it in court.
He
advocated bringing the political parties partially under the transparency law
and is understood to have argued that there were sufficient provisions in the
RTI to shield political parties from undue harassment by rivals.
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