New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday deferred the final hearing on two PILs seeking to bring major political parties under the ambit of the Right to Information Act to ensure accountability and restrict the use of black money during polls.
A bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar was to hear the PILs filed by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), an NGO, and lawyer Ashwini Updhyay on the issue.
The CJI, who is demitting office on May 13, said these pleas will not be taken up for hearing now, adding that they will remain on board and may be heard on May 15.
On February 14, the top court asked the Centre, the Election Commission and six political parties to respond to the PILs seeking to bring them under the ambit of the Right to Information (RTI) Act.
“We will take it up on a non-miscellaneous day for the final hearing. In the meanwhile, the pleadings have to be complete,” the CJI had said. Advocate Prashant Bhushan, representing ADR, said his plea was pending for last 10 years.
The top court, on July 7, 2015, issued the notices to the Centre, the Election Commission and six political parties, including the Congress, BJP, CPI, NCP and BSP, on ADR’s plea seeking to declare all national and regional political parties “public authorities” to bring them under the ambit of the RTI.
A similar plea was filed by Upadhyay in 2019 for bringing political parties under the RTI to make them accountable and curb the use of black money in polls. In his plea, Upadhyay also sought directions to the Centre to take steps to deal with the menace of corruption and communalisation.“Declare the political parties, registered under Section 29A of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, a ‘Public Authority’ under Section 2(h) of the Right to Information Act, 2005, to make them transparent and accountable to the people and curb the use of black money in elections,” the plea said.