On June 3, Chief Information Commission of India passed a judgment according to which political parties are to be deemed as public authority and as such fall within the ambit of RTI. This means the income and expenditure of six mainstreams political parties that have been mentioned in the judgment have to be open and transparent and can be viewed at any time. But this did not suit the indicated parties except BJP, which said it did not find anything wrong in the judgment. Congress had called it interference in the democratic dispensation. Political parties joined hands to reject CIC’s order.
The government is reported to have ruled out the possibility of bringing an amendment to the RTI as had been speculated after the judgment of CIC was passed. Department of Personnel and Training, under whose jurisdiction RTI falls, has said that if any party has any grievance against the order and feels aggrieved, it can seek remedial measures. Naturally, the Department will stick to the orders of the CIC and will not find any need for intervention. We fail to understand why mainstream political parties would demand amendment to the Act and why they have objection to making the financial aspect of the party transparent? They are taking shelter behind the income tax returns, which they fill annually at the income tax department. But income tax return is different from RTI. The former is an official document that remains confined to the income tax department only and is not open for public examination. The two should not be mixed up. But if income taxes rules are amended in a manner that necessitates transparency in the case of income and expenditures of mainstream political parities, it may be a way out. But that again would be the discretion of the CIC.
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