The Central Information Commission on Monday ruled political parties are subject to the Right to Information Act.
A full bench of the commission — chief information commissioner Satyananda Mishra and commissioners M.L. Sharma and Annapurna Dixit — held six parties (Congress, BJP, CPI-M, CPI, NCP and BSP) fulfilled the criteria of being “public authorities” under the RTI Act.
“The presidents and general secretaries of these parties are hereby directed to designate CPIOs and appellate authorities at their headquarters in six weeks. The CPIOs will respond to RTI applications extracted in this order in four weeks,” the commission ordered. It also directed them to comply with mandatory disclosure clauses under the RTI Act.
Subhash Agrawal and Anil Bairwal of the Association of Democratic Reforms had sought details of financial contributions received by these six parties and the names and addresses of donors, which the parties had refused to give, saying they didn’t come under the RTI Act.