Cabinet gives nod to amend RTI Act to keep political parties out

The Union Cabinet has cleared crucial changes to the Right to Information (RTI) Act to keep the political parties out of its ambit by declaring that they are not public authorities.

The Cabinet gave its nod to amend the transparency law nearly two months after the Central Information Commission's order of bringing the six national political parties Congress, BJP, NCP, CPI-M, CPI and BSP under the RTI Act.

The decision in this regard was taken during a Cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh yesterday.

As per the amendments, the political parties as public authorities under the RTI would 'hamper their smooth internal functioning since it will encourage political rivals to file RTI applications with malicious intentions'.

They maintain that the Representation of the People Act and the Income Tax Act provide sufficient transparency regarding financial aspects of political parties.

Under Section 2 of the RTI Act, the definition of public authority in the proposed amendment will make it clear that 'it shall not include any political party registered under the Representation of the Peoples Act'.

As proposed earlier, political parties may not be added in the list of organisations (Section 8) exempted from parting information under the information act.

During the Cabinet meeting, some members, including Petroleum Minister Veerappa Moily voiced their dissent against the move. They were of the opinion that the people should know that amending the law was not a unilateral move by the government, but was based on consensus among all political parties.

RTI activist Commodore (Retd.) Lokesh K. Batra has written a letter to Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha, Sushma Swaraj, in which he has said that amendment to RTI Act, 2005 will be contempt of assurance given in the Parliament.

"On 05 July 2009, the then Minister of State in the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions had assured the Parliament in a written response to a question that the 'Non-Governmental Organisations and Social activists' will be consulted before any amendment to the RTI Act, 2005. The Hon'ble Minister reiterated his stand in Rajya Sabha on 25 August 2010," he said in his letter to Swaraj.

The RTI activist had last month written a letter to President Pranab Mukherjee in this regard.

In June, the Central Information Commission, which ensures the RTI Act is implemented and public queries are answered by government departments, ruled that the six major national parties, including the Congress and BJP are public authorities and must respond to RTI applications. The parties were given six weeks to appoint Public Information Officers (PIOs) to handle RTI requests.

The decision from transparency watchdog evoked sharp reactions from political parties, especially Congress which has been credited with bringing in the transparency law but is opposed to the CIC's directive.

The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), which acts as nodal department for the implementation of the RTI Act, in consultation with Law Ministry had earlier decided to amend the law.