Amendment in RTI Act, 2005 in the case of political parties…

Proposal for an amendment to the Right to Information Act, 2005 in the light of the decision of Central Information Commission dated 03.06.2013 in the case of political parties.

No. 1/13/2013 - IR
Government of India
Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions
Department of Personnel and Training
North Block,
New Delhi- 110001.

Dated the 23rd  July, 2013

NOTE FOR THE CABINET

Subject: Proposal for an amendment to the Right to Information Act, 2005 in the light of the decision of Central Information Commission dated 03.06.2013 in the case of political parties.

1. INTRODUCTION: 
1.1  The Right to_Information Act, 2005-  (the RTI Act) provides right to information to all the citizens of India and casts obligation on the public authorities to provide information which is held by or under the control of such public authorities. A public authority is defined in the RTI Act itself. Expanding the scope of definition of the Public authority, the Central Information Commission (CIC) in its decision dated 3rd  June, 2013 has held that the political parties namely AICC/INC, BJP, CPI (M), CPI, NCP and BSP are public authorities under Section 2(h) of the RTI Act. A copy of the said CIC decision is placed at Annexure I (Pg 11). This note proposes to bring a bill to amend the RTI Act to explicitly exclude the political parties from the definition of the Public authority for the purpose of the RTI Act.

2 BACKGROUND: 
2.1  The Right to Information Act, 2005 was enacted by the Government of India for setting out the practical regime of Right to Information for Citizens to secure access to information under the control of public authorities, in order to promote transparency and accountability in the working of every public authority. A public authority is defined in section 2 (h) of the Act as under: "public authority" means any authority or body or institution of self-government established or constituted-
a) by or under the Constitution;

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