The Wire: New Delhi: Wednesday, May 30, 2018.
The Election
Commission said on May 28 that national parties are public authorities under
the RTI Act as declared by the Central Information Commission, a day after the
poll panel’s appeal order on an RTI application saying political parties are
out of the purview of RTI Act was reported.
In a
statement issued yesterday, the Election Commission of India clarified that it
goes by the CIC order of June 3, 2013 that declared national parties as public
authorities for the purposes of RTI Act.
In pursuance
of this, the CIC order had said, all the information about the contributions
received by these parties as well as their annual audited accounts, as and when
submitted to the Commission, are put in public domain.
The appeal
order had come on an RTI applicant Vihar Dhurve who had sought details of
donations, through electoral bonds, collected by the six national parties
declared as public authorities under the RTI Act by the CIC – Congress, BJP,
NCP, BSP, CPI(M) and CPI.
In its order
deciding his first appeal, a senior official of the Election Commission had
said, “Requisite information is not available in the Commission. This is related
to political parties and they are out of purview of the RTI.
The First
Appellate Authority in the Election Commission K.F. Wilfred, the senior
principal secretary in poll panel, wrote in the order that he agrees with the
view taken by the CPIO of the Commission.
Six out of
seven political parties – the BJP, Congress, BSP, NCP, CPI and CPI(M) for
which information was sought by the applicant were brought under the ambit of
the RTI Act by a full bench of the commission on June 3, 2013.
The order has
not been challenged in the higher courts but the political parties have refused
to entertain the RTI applications directed at them. Several activists have
approached the Supreme Court on the grounds of non-compliance with the CIC
order and the matter is pending.
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