Sunday, February 21, 2010
Political parties not under RTI Act: GSIC
Political parties are not public authorities and therefore, information about political parties cannot be sought under section 6 of the Right to Information Act.
This is the observation of the Goa state information commission (GSIC) which dismissed a recent appeal from a citizen who sought information about the election expenditure of the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak party (MGP) for assembly elections of May 2007. In his order dated February 5, the State Chief Information Commissioner M S Keny has also noted that "It is rather strange and curious to note that the laws of the land do not make it mandatory for political parties to disclose the sources of their funding and even less so, the manner of expending those funds. In the absence of such laws, the only way a citizen can gain access to the details of funding of political parties is through their income tax returns filed annually with the income tax authority. So also other authority-election commission authorities."
This is the observation of the Goa state information commission (GSIC) which dismissed a recent appeal from a citizen who sought information about the election expenditure of the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak party (MGP) for assembly elections of May 2007. In his order dated February 5, the State Chief Information Commissioner M S Keny has also noted that "It is rather strange and curious to note that the laws of the land do not make it mandatory for political parties to disclose the sources of their funding and even less so, the manner of expending those funds. In the absence of such laws, the only way a citizen can gain access to the details of funding of political parties is through their income tax returns filed annually with the income tax authority. So also other authority-election commission authorities."
Labels: Exemption, Goa, Political, SIC
Complete Article# posted by Vishal : 2:31 PM
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