Political Parties against RTI: Amendment bill tabled in Lok Sabha

New Delhi: A bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha today to keep political parties out of the ambit of the RTI Act and negate a Central Information Commission (CIC) order to this effect under the transparency law. The Right to Information (Amendment) Bill, 2013 seeks to insert an explanation in Section 2 of the Act which states that any association or body of individuals registered or recognised as political party under the Representation of the People Act, 1951 will not be considered a public authority. The CIC order had termed Congress, BJP, BSP, NCP, CPI and CPI-M as political authorities. “The expression authority or body or institution of self-government established or constituted by any law made by Parliament shall not include any association or body of individuals registered or recognised as political party under the Representation of the People Act, 1951,” the explanation reads. [caption id=“attachment_1027843” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Despite protests in Parliament the bill was tabled. PTI[/caption] Referring to the CIC order of June, the bill also makes it clear that anything contained in any judgement, decree or order of any court or commission will not affect the status of political parties recognised under the RP Act. Since the CIC order on six major political parties came on 3 June, the amended Act will come into force with retrospective effect from June. “…with a view to remove the adverse effects of the said decision,” the bill states that it is necessary to give “retrospective effect” to the proposed amendment. The Statement of Objects and Reasons of the Bill,  introduced by Minister of State for Personnel V Narayanasamy, states that “the government considers that the CIC has made a liberal interpretation of Section 2 (h) of the said (RTI) Act in its decision. It points that there are already provisions in the RP Act as well as the Income Tax Act which deal with transparency in the financial aspects of political parties and their candidates. “Declaring a political party as public authority under the RTI Act would hamper its smooth internal working…further, the political rivals may misuse the provisions of RTI Act, thereby adversely affecting the functioning of the political parties,” the bill reads. PTI