2. Political parties under RTI Act: CIC i. The Central Information Commission (CIC) in a landmark judgement held political parties are answerable under the Right to Information Act, setting a new bench mark in transparency in politics ii. The Bench comprising Chief Information Commissioner Satyananda Mishra and Information Commissioner M L Sharma and Annapurna Dixit held six parties--Congress, BJP, CPI-M, CPI, NCP and BSP--to whom RTI queries were directed, fulfill the criteria of being public authorities under the Right to Information Act. iii. Now the parties will be answerable to the citizens regarding their source of funding, how they spend money and choice of candidates for elections, among other issues. iv. It also directed the Presidents and General Secretaries of the political parties to designate Central Public Information Officers and Appellate Authorities at their headquarters within six weeks. NOTE: The order came after activists Subhash Chandra Aggarwal and Anil Bairwal of the Association of Democratic Reforms requested CIC to declare political parties as public authorities. The political parties, except CPI, however, refused to disclose information, arguing that they do not come under the RTI Act.............................Joyful Ajeet
Posted on: Wed, 05 Jun 2013 04:15:04 +0000
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