NEW DELHI, Feb 14: The Supreme Court on Friday asked the Centre, the election commission and six political parties to respond in writing to the pleas seeking to bring them under the ambit of the Right to Information Act to ensure accountability and restricting black money during polls.
A bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar was hearing two separate PILs filed by NGO Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and lawyer Ashwini Updhyay on the issue.
“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 said.
Advocate Prashant Bhushan, representing ADR, said his plea was pending for the last 10 years.
The bench asked the litigants to file their written submissions, not exceeding three pages, before the final hearing and posted the hearing in the week of April 21.
The top court, on July 7 2015, issued the notices to the Centre, the election commission and six political parties – Congress, BJP, CPI, NCP and BSP, on the plea of the NGO 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 RTI to make them accountable and curb use of black money in polls.
Upadhyay, in his plea, also sought direction to the Centre to take steps to deal with the menace of corruption and communalisation.
The PIL sought a direction to the poll panel to ensure compliance of the RTI Act and other laws related to political parties and deregister them if they fail to abide by them.
“Direct the election commission to ensure compliance of the Representation of the People Act, Right to Information Act, Income Tax Act and other Election Laws and Rules so for as they relate to Political Parties and de-register them if they fail to comply with the Election Laws and Rules,” it added.
Referring to instances of corruption and indirect funding to political parties, the petition said the Central and state governments have allotted land/buildings and other accommodation in prime locations to the parties all over the country either free of cost or on concessional rates.
“This amounts to indirect financing of the political parties. Doordarshan allots free airtime to political parties during the elections. This is another instance of indirect financing,” it alleged.
“If closely monitored and totalled, the full amount of public funds spent on Political Parties, would possibly amount to thousands of crores,” it said.
The plea further said a body or entity did not become a political party in the legal sense until the election commission under Section 29A of the Representation of the People Act registered it.
“Therefore, this registration lends it the colour of public authority,” it added.The ADR, in a separate plea, also sought a direction to political parties to declare all donations, including those below Rs 20,000.
Bhushan contended that political parties were public authorities and hence amenable to the RTI Act.
The Central Information Commission, in a detailed order, previously held that political parties were public authorities and therefore should disclose the information under RTI Act.
“Political parties do not have to pay the income tax on the donations and, moreover, the donations below Rs 20,000 are not to be disclosed under the law by them,” the lawyer said.
The parties also controlled the legislature and the law-making process, he added.The NGO sought transparency and accountability in functioning of recognised national and regional political parties.
It claimed the political parties received huge sums of money in form of donations and contributions from corporates, trusts and individuals but did not disclose complete information about the source of such donations.
The NGO sought the declaration on donations and funding received by the political parties irrespective of the amount and details of donors and donations to electoral trusts.
The plea said political parties enjoyed a stronghold over their elected MPs and MLAs under Schedule 10 of the Constitution that makes it compulsory for members of either houses of Parliament or state legislatures to abide by the directions of their parties, failing which they stand to be disqualified. (PTI)
