Memorandum containing submissions to proposed amendments to RTI Act, 2005
5 Oct, 2013Before the Department Related Parliamentary
Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances Law and Justice (Rajya Sabha)
In the matter of Bill No. 112/2013
To:
The Hon’ble Chairman, along with his Hon’ble Co-Committee members,
Date: 04-Oct-2013
BY EMAIL
Sub: Memorandum containing submissions of the “India Against Corruption” jan andolan (“IAC”) to proposed amendments to Right To Information Act 2005, invited vide public notice dated 21-Sept-2013
We, the persons mentioned hereunder, crave permission to submit for your kind consideration our most humble submissions in response to the aforementioned public notice, and attest that we are willing and desirous to appear before the Hon’ble Committee in person to offer our oral evidence.
Most humbly showeth:
1) That the IAC welcomes the decision of the Hon’ble Committee to invite the submissions from “we the people of India” on such a nationally important flagship legislation conceived in 2001 by the then Prime Minister, Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayeeji, and brought into reality by office of the Chairperson National Advisory Council under the whip of the Hon’ble Supreme Court in some matters including WP(C) 637/98 &c.
2) That the IAC disagrees with the reasoning of the Central Information Commission vide their mischievous and legally unsound decision dt. 03.06.2013 which held that political parties come under purview of RTI Act. In this regard we submit,
(i) The CIC decision dt. 03.06.2013 was delivered, for extraneous considerations, by incompetent persons all on the verge of retirement, who were all appointed under an opaque discretionary process best described as "political horse trading".
(ii) There is an urgent need to lay down proper qualifications and transparent selection procedures for appointment of Information Commissioners of proven merit and integrity, so that such kind of foolish and corrupt decisions do not again emanate from the Information Commissions.
(iii) As the Central Information Commission is defined by the RTI Act to be a body comprised of a Chief Information Commissioner and up to 10 Information Commissioners, the present RTI Act does not envisage or permit that a small clique (or so-called “Full Bench”) of Information Commissioners can take such important decisions on behalf of the body and certainly not without wide notice and public consultation (as was the practice previously at the CIC).
3) That the IAC disagrees with the reasoning and process adopted by the Central Information Commission to hold that 6 national political parties are ‘public authority’ constituted or established by any law made by Parliament for purposes of subsection 2(h) “public authority” means any authority or body or institution of self-government established or constituted (a) by or under the Constitution; (b) by any other law made by Parliament; (c) by any other law made by State Legislature; (d) by notification issued or order made by the appropriate Government, and includes any- (i) body owned, controlled or substantially financed; (ii) non-Government organization substantially financed, directly or indirectly by funds provided by the appropriate Government; (b) of the RTI Act 2005.
4) That the IAC disagrees with the reasoning and process adopted by the Central Information Commission to hold that 6 national political parties are ‘public authority’ for purposes of sub-section 2(h) “public authority” means any authority or body or institution of self-government established or constituted (a) by or under the Constitution; (b) by any other law made by Parliament; (c) by any other law made by State Legislature; (d) by notification issued or order made by the appropriate Government, and includes any- (i) body owned, controlled or substantially financed; (ii) non-Government organization substantially financed, directly or indirectly by funds provided by the appropriate Government; (d) of RTI Act 2005 by virtue of substantial financing and other tangible benefits supposedly provided to these parties by Government.
5) That the IAC, having carefully studied the issues, believes that every registered or recognized Political Party is established or constituted BY OR UNDER the Constitution of India and hence is already squarely defined as “public authority” vide sub-section 2(h) “public authority” means any authority or body or institution of self-government established or constituted (a) by or under the Constitution; (b) by any other law made by Parliament; (c) by any other law made by State Legislature; (d) by notification issued or order made by the appropriate Government, and includes any- (i) body owned, controlled or substantially financed; (ii) non-Government organization substantially financed, directly or indirectly by funds provided by the appropriate Government; (a) of RTI Act, a fact which was never properly considered by the CIC in their impugned decision.
6) That the IAC has carefully studied the issues, including
(i) The submissions of 6 political parties before the Central Information Commission,
(ii) The “top secret” Cabinet note for approving the subject Bill (subsequently published on DoPT’s website), and thus believes that Parliament, while passing the RTI Act 2005, had always intended that political parties be covered under the scope of RTI as “public authority” by virtue of sub-section 2(h) “public authority” means any authority or body or institution of self-government established or constituted (a) by or under the Constitution; (b) by any other law made by Parliament; (c) by any other law made by State Legislature; (d) by notification issued or order made by the appropriate Government, and includes any- (i) body owned, controlled or substantially financed; (ii) non-Government organization substantially financed, directly or indirectly by funds provided by the appropriate Government; (a) of the RTI Act 2005.
7) That the IAC disagrees with the mischievous, foolish and biased wording of the public notice dated 21.09.2013 implying that having political parties under RTI’s purview shall have ”adverse effects”.
The said statement betrays either
(i) The complete disregard and contempt the generally corrupt political classes have for the citizens of India who elect them, or
(ii) The desire to evade citizen scrutiny into some political parties which have been run for decades as family businesses to loot the nation’s resources.
8) That the IAC disagrees that the text of the present Bill no. 112/2013 shall keep political parties out of the purview of RTI Act. It seems that whoever has drafted the said Amending Bill 112/2013 is a wise person fully meeting the description of the poem
“I am the Parliamentary draftsman
I compose the country’s laws
And of half the litigation
I am undoubtedly the cause.
..
..
I’m the Parliamentary Draftsman,
And they tell me it’s a fact
That I often make a muddle
Of a simple little Act.”
9) Accordingly, the IAC movement PRAYS that the Government, all political parties and Parliament should pass the said Bill No. 112/2013 in exactly its present form as soon as possible, and stop wasting the nation’s time, for the Bill’s present text does not achieve its stated objective to keep political parties out of purview of RTI Act.
10) Finally, the IAC firmly believes that transparency is the best disinfectant, and that Parliamentary Committees, being directly accountable to the citizens who elect them, cannot hide behind archaic veils of secrecy and confidentiality in their deliberations. Hence, the IAC is placing and widely circulating its memoranda in the public domain with the aim that the citizens may examine how this Hon’ble Committee (composed only of professional politicians and members of political parties) ultimately adjudicates the people’s interest versus their own private interests (which adjudication ought to have been left to the judiciary - as in the case of every other hapless party afflicted by perverse decisions of the CIC and SICs but lacking the power to amend the laws retrospectively to save themselves).
This electronic memorandum, drafted and filed via email by Er. Sarbajit Roy (National Convenor IAC) is electronically subscribed to by the following citizens of India on behalf of the India Against Corruption jan andolan.
(NB: The hard copy/printout (2 copies) is also being sent by post to the Hon’ble Committee’s Secretariat for its records).
Subscribers : -
1) Er. Sarbajit Roy (RTI Activist) Email : sroy.mb@gmail.com
2) Er. Chandrakant J. Karira (RTI Activist) Email : cjkarira@gmail.com
3) Dr. Sandeep Gupta (RTI Activist) Email : drsandgupta@gmail.com
4) Shri Mohd. Muzib-ur-Rehman (RTI Activist) Email : muzib1968@gmail.com