A PIL was filed by an NGO named, Association for Democratic Reforms, seeking direction of the court in order to make political parties amenable to the RTI Act. Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the petitioner, argued that since national parties are virtually funded by the state by exempting them from filing income tax returns, they should be brought under the concerned Act. He further added that the parties would have to pay 35 per cent of the total donation received by them had they not been exempted.
The Supreme Court passed an order on the basis of this PIL, asking for response from all national political parties on why they should not be brought within the ambit of RTI to make them more accountable to public. A bench headed by Chief Justice, H L Dattu, issued notice to all six national political parties including BJP, Congress, CPI, BSP and CPM alongwith Centre and the Election Commission demanding them to make their stand clear on bringing political parties under the RTI Act.
It is being suggested that political parties should be covered within the RTI Act considering the reasoning given by Adv. Bhushan. Therefore, political parties like INC, BJP, CPI(M), CPI, NCP and BSP should be regarded as public authorities as per Section 2(h) of the RTI Act. The same view has been presented by the Central Information Commission (CIC). In its landmark judgment, it was ruled that political parties fall within the ambit of the RTI Act.
Though, there was no mention of the term “political parties” in the Constitution of India in 1950, they, now, hold a constitutional status and exert such powers under the X Schedule of the Constitution which extend to provide enormous powers to the political parties. Therefore, on purposive interpretation of the X Schedule, the political parties can be held to fall under Section 2(h) of the RTI Act which defines public authority on which RTI is applicable.
Further, political parties come to power and make government on the basis of the votes received by them. Thus, it becomes a moral duty of such parties to reveal the sought information to the general public which casts their vote and vests power in them. Nevertheless, the extent of information to be given is a matter of consideration.