Plea filed with J&K SIC to bring political parties under RTI
15 Jun, 2013As the central information commission (CIC) recently held in its order that political parties can be considered as public authorities and hence fall under the ambit of Right to Information (RTI) Act, the RTI activists in Jammu and Kashmir have also filed a plea in the state information commission seeking to bring regional political parties under RTI.
The petition filed by the activists of the Sangarsh RTI Movement seeks to bring three main regional parties viz. National Conference (NC), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and J&K National Panthers Party (JKNPP) under the ambit of state RTI Act.
The RTI activists have pointed that as the CIC order is not directly applicable to regional parties and the state information commission doesn’t have power to suo motu declare the regional parties as public authorities, they have filed a petition for the purpose. The activists have also sought details from political parties including their funds, donors, expenses, etc. and hoped that the political parties would support their move to enhance transparency in the system.