Welcoming the judgment of the Central Information Commission (CIC) bringing political parties under the ambit of the RTI Act, litigant Subhash Chandra Agrawal said the order will have long-term effect on the country’s political scenario.

While maintaining that it was a strong order, Agrawal said, “The political parties which have not done anything wrong need not fear the RTI. In fact, the RTI will help the political parties to come closer to the public.”

On Monday, a full bench of the CIC declared political parties as public authorities, thereby, bringing them under Right to Information (RTI) Act.

The order means that all provisions of the RTI will be applicable to the political parties. The public can seek information from the political parties, on any given matter. From the nomination of the candidates to the filing of election tickets, the RTI application will bring transparency in the internal functioning’s of the political parties. However, these also include various exemptions. Under sections 7 (9) and 1 (8), the political parties will be exempted from disclosing information under special circumstances. The petitioners have made it clear that the new initiative will in no way interfere with parliamentary proceedings.

“First of all, RTI does not question, it only seeks information. It will not at all interfere with any parliamentary proceedings. Political parties can always file a writ petition,” explained Professor Jagdeep Chhokar, founder member of Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), an organisation which works for transparency and accountability in political parties.

The decision by a bench compromising of chief information commissioner Satyananda Mishra, information commissioners M L Sharma and Annapurna Dixit comes as a significant step in the RTI movement.

In 2010 and 2011, two RTI applications were filed by Subhash Aggarwal and Anil Bairwal, seeking financial details of the main political parties. Barring CPI, all other parties refused to divulge details, stating that they did not come under RTI. This was challenged by the two petitioners at the CIC level.

The CIC declared that the main political parties will come under the RTI due to three reasons: their public duty, the indirect funding they receive from the government, in terms of land allotment and free air time and the constitutional and legal provisions given to the parties.