India News : The Cabinet Thursday approved amendments to the Right to Information Act (RTI) to ensure political parties are not categorised as public authorities, a move that nullifies the directive of the Central Information Commission (CIC) to bring them under the transparency law.
The CIC had in June held that six national parties — the Congress, BJP, NCP, CPM, CPI and BSP — were substantially funded indirectly by the government and had the character of a public authority, compelling them to share information under the RTI.
It had directed parties to appoint public information officers for the same. The order had made India only the third country in the world after Poland and Nepal to bring political parties under the ambit of the transparency law.
The Cabinet observed that the CIC had made a liberal interpretation of Section 2(h) of the RTI Act, leading to an erroneous conclusion that political parties were public authorities. It was also pointed out that bringing political parties under the Act was never visualised when the law was made.
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