All the six national parties including the BJP and the Congress on Friday did not attend the sitting of the Central Information Commission (CIC) on the issue of non-compliance of RTI Act by the political parties. The CIC's full bench decided to reserve the verdict on the matter. Apart from the two major parties, the CIC had issued notices to CPI(M), CPI, NCP and BSP for adhering to the RTI Act last year. It sent notices to the party chiefs again in June, this year.
All political parties from the very beginning objected to CIC's controversial decision to bring them under RTI. All the parties have replied to the Commission that the purview of RTI was not applicable to political organisations and their disclosure of decisions and procedures were subject to the party forums and members only. The parties also contested that as their annual accounts were mandated to file to Income Tax and Election Commission and they were in public domain.
The verdict of the CIC said the parties come under the definition of 'Public Authority' as they receive concessions and exemptions from the Government. Though the UPA Government mooted changing the definition of the word 'Public Authority' in the RTI Act in an all party meet in July, previous year, the amendment bill was not materialised.
"Attitude of concerned political parties is shocking towards an institution Central Information Commission formed through legislation passed by the Parliament where all these political parties were also party to the legislation. If concerned political parties did not agree with the said CIC-verdict, they should have challenged the CIC-verdict in the appropriate 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 any such legislation being lawful," said Subhash Agrawal, the petitioner and noted RTI activist.