‘Parties stand no chance in court’

NEW DELHI: The government’s move to amend the Right to Information Act came after its legal experts concluded that an appeal against the Central Information Commission’s (CIC) verdict covering political parties would not withstand judicial scrutiny.

If the UPA’s plan to promulgate an ordinance comes through, this will be the first amendment to the RTI law.

Previous attempts to knock down a few teeth of the transparency law had to be aborted under pressure from the Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council and lack of consensus within political parties.

This time it could be different. CIC’s decision that political parties were covered under RTI, however, has made all parties uncomfortable.

Sources said the proposal to promulgate an ordinance was a departure from the initial stand of the government that political parties should challenge the decision if they felt it was incorrect. But when legal experts scrutinised the decision, they concluded it would be far too risky.

Several decisions of the CIC that ruled private bodies – classified as public bodies under this law since they received concessional land from the government – have been upheld by courts. “There is no provision in the RTI Act that would have distinguished between a political party and a hospital or a club,” a government source said.

Under the proposed amendments, the source said an explanatory note would be added in the definition of public authority to clarify that a political party was not a public authority.

Former information commissioner Shailesh Gandhi called the proposed ordinance a retrograde step. “What is the emergency?” he asked, wondering why the political parties weren’t challenging the CIC decision if it was so wrong.

Information and broadcasting minister Manish Tewari said, “the intent of RTI Act was not to cover political parties. Else, it should have been explicitly stated.”