Outlook:
New Delhi: Tuesday, 02 December 2014.
The Central
Information Commission today summoned six national political parties to appear
before it on January 7 next year to explain their position on non- compliance
of its directives for which they are liable to be penalised but avoided issuing
any show cause notice.
"This
Commission directs the Presidents and/or the General Secretaries of the six
political parties to appear before this Commission for a hearing on 7th
January, 2015 (Wednesday) at 4:00 pm and produce all relevant documents/records
relating to this matter," a Full Bench of CIC comprising former
bureaucrats said here.
The
transparency panel which is a quasi-judicial body said it has taken into
account the submissions made by the appellants during the hearing which all the
six parties gave a miss.
"We have
taken into account the submissions made by the parties during the hearing and
gone through the material on record. The hearing, in context of the notice of
03.11.2014, has thrown up some questions, which need reflection and due consideration
before any final orders are passed," the CIC said in the interim order.
CIC said
question which needs to be answered include the nature and scope of this
Commission's functioning as envisaged in the RTI Act to follow up on the
compliance of its orders and directions, addressing a situation where the
respondents do not engage in the process, such as the present instance where
the political parties have not appeared in the hearing on November 21 and the
need to identify the steps requisite for ensuring implementation of this
Commission's order declaring them as public authority under the RTI Act.
On June 3,
last year, the Commission had declared Congress, BJP, CPI, CPI(M), NCP and BSP
as public authorities answerable under the Right to Information (RTI) Act and
given them six weeks to comply with the mandatory requirements under the law
for the processing of information seeking applications.
But none of
these parties followed the directives of the quasi-judicial body which are
binding according to the RTI Act unless a contrary order is received from a
high court through a writ petition.
The parties
neither challenged the order by approaching a high court nor any amendment was
brought before Parliament to make changes in the law.
Following the
disregard of the verdict given by the transparency panel, activists Subhash
Agrawal, R K Jain and voluntary organisation Association for Democratic Reforms
filed complaint with the CIC.
The
complainants said the non-compliance has created the impression in the minds of
the people at large that the rule of law exists only for common persons, and
all institutions and people who enjoy some authority, formal or informal, and
political parties in particular, are above the law.
"If
political parties and Union government were not agreeable to CIC-verdict, they
should have challenged the CIC-verdict in court. Even legislation to amend RTI
Act for the purpose was deferred despite Parliamentary Committee's
recommendations perhaps because the then Attorney General opined against such
legislation," Agrawal said.
While
declaring the political parties answerable to public under the RTI Act, CIC, a
statutory body, had held that they have been substantially financed by the
Central Government bringing them under the RTI Act.
The
Commission has also looked into the criticality of the role being played by
them in democracy and the nature of duties performed by them and found that
their public character, brings them in the ambit of section 2(h), ADR said.
"The
constitutional and legal provisions discussed in the CIC decision also point
towards their character as public authorities," it said about the order.
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