Bill moved to keep parties out of RTI ambit The government on Monday introduced an amendment to the Right to Information Act, 2005, to keep political parties out of the purview of this law. This had been necessitated by an order of the Central Information Commission on June 3, which held that all political parties were public authorities under section 2(h) of the Act. The government decided to "amend the RTI Act to keep the political parties out of the purview of the Act, with a view to remove the adverse effects of the decision of the CIC." The proposed amendment will come into effect from June 3, the day the CIC order was passed. The CIC order had described Congress, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Communist Party of India (CPI) and the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) as political authorities. After the amendment, which had been unanimously agreed upon by all political parties, Section 2(h) of the Act will now read as "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." Similarly, after section 31 of the Act, the amendment will include "notwithstanding anything contained in any judgment, decree or order of any court of commission, the provision of this Act, as amended by the Right to Information (Amendment) Act, 2013, shall have effect and shall be deemed always to have effect, in the case of any association or body of individuals registered or recognised as political party under the representation of the Peoples Act, 1951 or any other law for the time being in force and the rules made or notifications issued thereunder." "The government considers that the CIC has made a liberal interpretation of section 2(h) of the said Act in its decision. The political parties are neither established nor constituted by or under the Constitution or by any other law made by Parliament. Rather, they are registered or recognised under the Representation of People Act, and the rules/orders made under it," according to the statement of objects and reasons of the Right to Information (Amendment) Bill, 2013 which was introduced by Minister of State, PMO, V.Narayanasamy. It has also been observed that there are already provisions in the Representation of the People Act, 1951 as well as in the Income Tax Act, 1961 which deals with the transparency in the financial aspects of political parties and their candidates, it said. "Declaring a political party as public authority under the RTI Act would hamper ist smooth internal working, which is not the objective of the said Act and was not envisaged by Parliament under the RTI Act. Further, the political rivals may misuse the provisions of RTI Act, thereby adversely affecting the functioning of the political parties," the amendment Bill stated. Meanwhile, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative has written to the Lok Sabha Speaker to use her "powers and influence" to ensure that the Bill is not put to vote in a hasty manner. "Instead I urge you to refer such an amendment Bill to a Standing Committee or a Select Committee of the House to facilitate widespread public consultation on the subject. This will be in keeping with the Central Government’s assurance given to Parliament in 2009 that the RTI Act will not be amended without public consultation," Maja Daruwala of the CHRI said. This law gives effect to the people’s fundamental right to know, embedded in the right to freedom of speech and expression, guaranteed under Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution. "The government is seeking to curtail the very scope of this fundamental right through its amendment proposal. Article 13 of the Constitution prohibits Parliament from passing any law that abridges a fundamental right," Ms. Daruwala said.
Posted on: Mon, 12 Aug 2013 13:41:36 +0000
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