Samanwaya Rautray |
New Delhi |
In a writ filed in the top court, RTI activists Jagdeep S Chhokar for the Association for Democratic Reforms and Subhas Agrawal, sought court intervention to have the CIC order implemented in the interests of transparency and accountability in the functioning of political parties in the country . Their case was argued by activist lawyer Prashant Bhushan who made out a very strong case to make political parties accountable and transparent.
“Political powers have been endowed with several statutory and constitutional powers in the country .They can disqualify members under the Tenth Schedule for defying their whip. They get hundred per cent I-T exemptions on all donations made to them,“ he argued. “Ultimately they decide the fate of legislators, decide policies. They form governments and control the legislatures. They are also substantially funded by the state,“ Bhushan contended.
The CIC had declared all political parties as “public authorities“ under the RTI, making it mandatory for them to disclose for public scrutiny details of their income, expenditure, donations and funding including details of donors making donations to these parties and their trusts. But political parties continued to defy the CIC, which does not have powers to initiate contempt proceedings, forcing activists to move the SC, Bhushan said.
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