The Commission on 3 June, last year had declared Congress, BJP, CPI, CPI(M), NCP and BSP as public authorities answerable under the Right to Information (RTI) Act and given them six weeks to comply with the mandatory requirements under the law for the processing of information seeking applications.
But none of the political parties followed the directives of the quasi-judicial body which are a binding as per the RTI Act unless a contrary order is received from a High Court through a writ petition. The parties neither challenged the order by approaching a High Court nor any amendment was brought before the Parliament to make changes in the law. Following the disregard of the verdict given by the transparency panel, activists Subhash Agrawal, RK Jain and voluntary organisation Association for Democratic Reforms filed complaint with the CIC.
‘It’s been more than 17 months since the CIC’s order and till now none of the six political parties has complied with the CIC’s order... This is a clear case of open defiance of a statutory authority by the six political parties and is not conducive to the functioning of a democratic society,’ ADR said in a statement.
It further said that this non-compliance has a ‘very serious detrimental effect on the state of democracy in the country at large’. A bench of Vijai Sharma, Manjula Parashar and Sharat Sabharwal will hear the complaint.
The complainants said the non-compliance has created the impression in the minds of the people at large that the rule of law exists only for common persons, and all institutions and people who enjoy some authority, formal or informal, and political parties in particular, are above the law.
‘If political parties and Union government were not agreeable to CIC-verdict, they should have challenged the CIC-verdict in court. Even legislation to amend RTI Act for the purpose was deferred despite Parliamentary Committee’s recommendations perhaps because the then Attorney General opined against such legislation,’ Agrawal said.
But none of the political parties followed the directives of the quasi-judicial body which are a binding as per the RTI Act unless a contrary order is received from a High Court through a writ petition. The parties neither challenged the order by approaching a High Court nor any amendment was brought before the Parliament to make changes in the law. Following the disregard of the verdict given by the transparency panel, activists Subhash Agrawal, RK Jain and voluntary organisation Association for Democratic Reforms filed complaint with the CIC.
‘It’s been more than 17 months since the CIC’s order and till now none of the six political parties has complied with the CIC’s order... This is a clear case of open defiance of a statutory authority by the six political parties and is not conducive to the functioning of a democratic society,’ ADR said in a statement.
It further said that this non-compliance has a ‘very serious detrimental effect on the state of democracy in the country at large’. A bench of Vijai Sharma, Manjula Parashar and Sharat Sabharwal will hear the complaint.
The complainants said the non-compliance has created the impression in the minds of the people at large that the rule of law exists only for common persons, and all institutions and people who enjoy some authority, formal or informal, and political parties in particular, are above the law.
‘If political parties and Union government were not agreeable to CIC-verdict, they should have challenged the CIC-verdict in court. Even legislation to amend RTI Act for the purpose was deferred despite Parliamentary Committee’s recommendations perhaps because the then Attorney General opined against such legislation,’ Agrawal said.