The Hindu: New Delhi: Friday, August
12, 2016.
In a landmark
judgment in 2013, the Central Information Commission had ruled that political
parties come within the ambit of the Right to Information Act.
The tug of
war between the six national political parties and the Central Information
Commission (CIC) continues as they continue to defy its orders three years
after it had declared them as “public authorities” under the Right to
Information Act, 2005 making it mandatory for them to fulfil all obligations
under the provisions of the RTI Act.
Petitions by
several organisations and individuals questioning the defiance of the 2013
order of CIC are being heard by the full bench of the Commission even as a writ
petition seeking a direction to the national parties to comply with the order
is pending before the Supreme Court.
At the recent
hearing of the CIC, advocates on behalf of the Congress sought more time to
gather the required documents or on the plea that the senior counsel on behalf
of the party was not available. No one appeared on behalf of the BJP, CPI (M),
CPI and BSP.
Counsel for
NCP Amit Anand Tiwari, attended and undertook to file `Vakalatnama’
(affidavit). In earlier hearing, a different advocate undertook to file
Vakalatnama but at the last hearing Amit Anand Tiwari stated that he was his
junior. He stated that the hearing in the present matter will be Res Judicata
(a matter that has been adjudicated by a competent court and therefore may not
be pursued further by the same parties) as the issue is pending before Supreme
Court of India.
Prakash Karat
and Sitaram Yechury filed written statements on behalf of CPI( M) and Sudhakar
Reddy have filed written statement on behalf of CPI explaining their reasons
why the RTI is not applicable. No reply has filed by BSP and BJP.
After hearing
the parties present, the CIC while adjourning the case to August 26 has
directed that fresh notices to be issued to all parties both present and not
present. “Parties shall exchange the petitions/submissions to each other
through post and will file proof of service. Parties who have objection to
intervention shall file the same by 19 August 2016”, the CIC has said.
In June 3 in
a landmark judgement the full bench of the CIC, in response to petitions filed
among others by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) had ruled in
favour of bringing the national parties under the ambit of the RTI.
The
petitioner had sought information from national political parties regarding
their income, expenditure, donations and funding.
In March 2015
while holding its previous order “legally correct and binding” also observed
that they do not have any powers to ensure compliance of its own orders.
In August
last year in an affidavit in the Supreme Court the union government had opposed
a plea to bring political parties under the ambit of RTI Act, saying it would
adversely impact their internal working and political functioning. It had said
that the Central Information Commission (CIC) erroneously ruled in June 2013
that political parties are public authorities under the RTI Act and, hence, are
accountable under the transparency law.
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