SC agrees to hear plea to bring parties under RTI

The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a plea to bring political parties under the Right to Information Act, making them liable to answer question about their funding like any other public institution.

The public interest litigation was filed by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR). It argued as political parties were funded substantially by the central government, they qualified as public authority Section 2(h)(ii) of the RTI Act. This claim has already been upheld by the Chief Information Commissioner (CIC).

CIC has agreed that as political parties are funded by public money and indirect government funding through subsidised or even free land to parties in prime areas of Delhi as well as state capitals, accommodation which is a form of indirect financing of parties, total tax exemption, RTI must apply to them.

However, the litigation said parties are brazenly defied the order and must be penalised in the same way as government agencies if they violate RTI.

The PIL has asked the court to issue appropriate orders declaring all national and regional political parties to be public authorities and mandatorily disclose all details about income and expenditure, donations and funding, full details of donors and electoral trusts.