Where is the file of CIC’s order for bringing political parties under RTI?
15 Feb, 2014Though the Central Information Commission (CIC) has issued notice to six political parties for not executing its order to implement the Right to Information (RTI) Act, it has come to the fore that the commission has misplaced the file of that historic order.
The issue was brought to light after a complaint was filed by an RTI activist with the transparency watchdog alleging that the file of the CIC order had gone missing and demanded that a police complaint be filed in this regard.
Though the chief information commissioner has denied the allegation stating that only one file related to the order has been misplaced, the complainant has alleged that the misplacement of file was deliberately concealed so as to hamper the enforcement of the transparency act on political parties. He also demanded that as all the efforts to retrieve the file have failed, a police complaint must be lodged in this regard.
This is to be noted that the central information commission had held in its June 2013 order that six political parties viz. Congress, BJP, NCP, BSP, CPI and CPM fall under the definition of public authority mentioned in Section 2 (h) of the RTI Act and had directed them to appoint public information officers and appellate authorities. Recently, on February 7, 2014 the commission also served notices to the parties seeking explanation for non-compliance of its orders.