No CIC action against political parties that defy RTI

Times of india: New Delhi: Wednesday, January 29, 2014.

It is not just the government that is dithering on the issue of whether political parties were accountable under the RTI. Even the Central Information Commission, which passed the path-breaking order on June 3, 2013, has dragged its feet on issuing a non-compliance notice to the six national parties subject to it.

This was despite the fact that the six national parties, including Congress and BJP, were required to appoint information officers and appellate authorities under the RTI within six weeks of the CIC order.

For all controversy raised by its order, the CIC has so far not taken any follow-up action although the RTI petitioner, Subhash Chandra Agrawal, filed three non-compliance applications, one to each of the three successive chairpersons during this period.

The first non-compliance application filed on August 29 was addressed to Satyananda Mishra, who was the chairperson of the CIC when the order had been passed against the political parties. Mishra baulked at issuing a notice to the defaulters, which had by then pressured the government to float a legislative proposal to keep the political parties outside the ambit of the RTI.

The next non-compliance application was filed before Mishra's successor, Deepak Sandhu, who had tenure of barely three months as CIC chairperson. Just a day before her retirement on December 18, a parliamentary standing committee gave a report endorsing the bill amending the RTI to get over the CIC order on political parties.

Since Parliament backed off from passing the bill in the face of public outrage over political corruption, Agrawal filed his third non-compliance application in the matter, this time to the current chairperson, Sushma Singh, whose tenure is of no more than five months. Sushma Singh too has failed to react with alacrity to the defiance displayed by the political parties.

Besides Congress and BJP, the national parties that are enjoying impunity on account of the CIC's inaction on its June order are CPM, CPI, NCP and BSP. Since its order had directed the presidents and general secretaries of the six national parties to set up the necessary infrastructure for implementing the RTI, the CIC has the option of imposing monetary penalties on the political leaders concerned.

The CIC's failure to exercise its powers on the three non-compliance applications has facilitated the legislative stalemate. Despite the standing committee's go-ahead, the bill diluting the RTI for the benefit of political parties does not figure among the legislative measures that Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi has prioritized for the final session before the Lok Sabha election.

This is because the bills that Rahul Gandhi has been talking about are all meant to combat corruption (grievance redress, whistle blower protection, etc).