GreaterKashmir.com: Srinagar: Friday, 18 July 2014.
The State
Information Commission (SIC) Thursday directed the political parties including
the ruling National Conference to submit a reply on why they shouldn’t be
declared as public authorities under the JK Right to Information Act-2009.
The full
bench of SIC comprising Chief Information Commissioner GR Sufi and Information
Commissioners, Nazir Ahmad and Dr S.K. Sharma directed political parties-NC,
BJP, Panthers Party and Congress- to submit a rejoinder to a complaint filed by
Deepak Sharma and Balwinder Singh in the Commission.
In the
complaint, the appellants claimed that these political parties refused to
disclose information under the Act.
They had prayed
before the Commission that these parties should be brought under the
transparency law.
When
contacted, Registrar SIC, G Q Bhat confirmed that they have asked political
parties to file the reply.
He said
during the today’s hearing the National Conference, BJP and Panthers Party were
represented by their counsels while none from Congress was present.
“We have also
asked the complainants to be present in person on the next hearing which will
be fixed shortly,” he said.
Following the
Central Information Commission’ last year declaring all the six national
political parties including Congress and BJP as public authorities, two Jammu-
based RTI activists Deepak Sharma and Balwinder Singh decided to “test the
waters” in the State. On June 8, the duo filed applications to NC, PDP and NPP
seeking information from them under the State RTI Act. They also sought
information from state units of Congress and BJP.
The
information seekers had sought information about donation (funds) received by
these political parties during the last five years and details of expenditure
thereof. The PDP has furnished detailed income and expenditure statements of
the past five years in response to the application. But on other hand, NC did
not respond to the application at all.
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