Political parties to come under Right to Information Act

Mangalore Today/NDTV

Political parties will now come under the Right to Information or RTI Act, which means that they will have to share details like who funds them, how they spend that money and even how they select candidates for elections, if sought.

In its order today, the Central Information Commission or CIC said that any written records can now be sought from any entity in a political party.
 
Most parties are vehemently opposed to such a move and have argued that they are not government funded and so should not be brought under the Act, which seeks to make transparent all expenditure of public money.

On record, parties say they are open to such scrutiny. The Congress said today that it welcomes the ruling.

Today’s order was made in response to a clutch of petitions filed by senior advocate and activist Prashant Bhushan and RTI activist Subhash Aggarwal among others, who have argued that political parties should come under RTI.

"Political parties being an important player in the business of government formation in the country and receiving various kinds of benefits and tax concessions from the government, certainly ought to be regarded as public authorities, and hence should be brought under RTI," Mr Bhushan told NDTV.

Political parties can go to court against the CIC order.