The Election Commission on Monday said national parties are public authorities under the RTI Act as declared by the Central Information Commission, a day after the poll panel’s appeal order on an RTI application saying “political parties are out of the purview of RTI Act” was reported.
In a statement issued on Monday, the Election Commission of India clarified that it goes by the CIC order of 3rd June, 2013 that declared national parties as public authorities for the purposes of RTI Act.
In pursuance of this, the CIC order had said, all the information about the contributions received by these parties as well as their annual audited accounts, as and when submitted to the Commission, are put in public domain. The appeal order had come on an RTI applicant Vihar Dhurve who had sought details of donations, through electoral bonds, collected by the six national parties declared as public authorities under the RTI Act by the CIC — Congress, BJP, NCP, BSP, CPM and CPI.