INTERNATIONAL

JOURNAL FOR LEGAL

RESEARCH & ANALYSIS
(ISSN 2582 – 6433)

VOLUME I ISSUE VIII

(JANUARY 2021)

Email – editor@ijlra.com
Website – www.ijlra.com

56565656565651
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Volume I Issue VIII| January 2021 ISSN: 2582-6433

DISCLAIMER

No part of this publication may be reproduced or copied in any form by any means
without prior written permission of Managing Editor of IJLRA. The views
expressed in this publication are purely personal opinions of the authors and do not
reflect the views of the Editorial Team of IJLRA.

Though every effort has been made to ensure that the information in Volume I
Issue VIII is accurate and appropriately cited/referenced, neither the Editorial
Board nor IJLRA shall be held liable or responsible in any manner whatsever for
any consequences for any action taken by anyone on the basis of information in
the Journal.

Copyright © International Journal for Legal Research & Analysis

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EDITORIAL TEAM

EDITORS
Ms. Ezhiloviya S.P.
Nalsar Passout

Ms. Priya Singh

West Bengal National University of Juridical Science

Mr. Ritesh Kumar

Nalsar Passout

Mrs. Pooja Kothari

Practicing Advocate

Dr. Shweta Dhand

Assistant Professor

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ABOUT US
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original, unpublished and is in consonance with the submission guidelines.

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BRINGING POLITICAL PARTIES UNDER RTI

(By Saurabh Kumar)
ABSTRACT
Bringing political parties under the umbrella of Right to Information Act, 2005 has been a
long journey and is still in the pipeline. The issue started when the Association for
Democratic Reforms (an organization), filed an RTI application seeking the information of
fund collection by 10 maximum voluntary contributions received by all the national parties in
the year 2010. In response to this, political parties denied disclosing this information with
ADR (Association for democratic reform) on the ground that political parties do not fall
under the scope of Right to Information Act, 2005. This matter reached before the Central
Information Commission and it was held that all political parties are a ‘public authority’
under Section 2(h) of the Right to Information Act, 2005 due to which it is necessary for
them to disclose the information for the above mentioned reason. Political parties denied to
follow the decision of Central Information Commission (hereinafter CIC), and to nullify the
decision of CIC they introduced the Right to Information (Amendment) Bill, 2013 in the Lok
Sabha which was sent to the Standing Committee for their view. The Standing Committee
observed that political parties should fall under the ambit of RTI Act, and the proposed
amendment cannot be passed. In the year of 2016, several public Interest litigation were filed
before the Supreme Court, which were all clubbed together for hearing. The matter still
pending in the court is whether the political parties fall under the ambit of RTI Act, 2005 or
not?

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INTRODUCTION
A political party is said to be an association of a group of people who have the same
ideology or have the same political positions, and who send their candidates for elections in
an attempt to get them elected and thereby implement the party’s agenda. In simple words, a
political party means a group of people, who nominate members among the group for
contesting elections.1 Recently an issue was raised that whether a political party falls under
the purview of Right to Information Act, 2005 (hereinafter RTI Act)? It became a
longstanding issue and underwent a long discussion but till now it is not resolved.
Association for Democratic Reforms had filed an application under the RTI Act to all
National Parties in 2010 requesting information about the “10 maximum voluntary
contributions” received by the Political Parties in the last five years, but none of the Political
Parties came forward to reveal this information. While the Indian National Congress (INC)
replied promptly saying that it does not fall within the purview of the RTI Act, the Bharatiya
Janata Party (BJP) and other Political Parties did not even bother to reply. Association for
Democratic Reforms, after the denial of information by INC and no response from the BJP
and other parties, filed an appeal to the Central Information Commission, which held that the
political party is a “public authority” within the purview of the RTI Act, 2005. After this
decision, a number of political parties filed an appeal before the Supreme Court against the
order of the CIC, which is still pending before the court.2

1
Lumen, Political Parties: What are they and how do they function?, (Apr. 14, 2020 10:30
AM)https://courses.lumenlearning.com/americangovernment/chapter/introduction-9/
2
National Election Watch, , Political Parties under RTI Act, Association for Democratic Reform (Apr. 14, 2020
08:43 PM), https://adrindia.org/sites/default/files/Political%20Parties%20under%20RTI%20Act.pdf

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MEANING OF POLITICAL PARTY

A political party is an association which describes its colour from Article 19(1) (c) of the
constitution of India which guarantees the freedom to form associations or unions.3 Members
of the association claim their association as a political party and they nominate some
members of their organization in the election.4 The members whose name is recommended by
the party, file their nomination at the decided constituency. In India, political parties are
classified based on the geographical spread.5

FUNCTIONS OF THE POLITICAL PARTY

Political parties perform an important task in the government. Political parties are to
nominate candidates for public office and to get as many of them elected as possible. Once
the person is elected, he tries to achieve the goals of their party through legislation and
programme initiatives. Political Parties are not policy-making organizations in themselves.
Political Parties certainly take position on the important policy matters, especially to provide
alternatives to the position of whichever party is in power. When the political party comes
into power, the party attempts to put its philosophy into practice through legislation. If a
candidate wins office by a large majority, it simply means that the large voters have given
him or her a mandate to carry out the program which was outlined in the campaign6.

CONTRIBUTION TO THE POLITICAL PARTY

Subject to the provisions of the Companies Act, 1956, every Political Party may accept any
amount of contribution voluntarily offered to it by any person or company other than a
Government Company but, no political party is eligible to accept contributions from any
foreign source defined under clause (e) of section 2 of the Foreign Contribution (Regulation)
Act, 1976 (49 of 1976)7. The Treasurer of a Political Party or any other person authorized by
the Political Party in this behalf is under obligation to prepare a report of contribution or

3
Nirali, Freedom of Association, Legal Service India.com, (Apr. 19, 2020 07:35 AM),
http://www.legalservicesindia.com/article/2302/freedom-of-association.html
4
R. Kenneth Carty, Political Parties in Advance Industrial Democracies, 356 (Paul Webb ed., Oxford University
Press, 2002).
5
Neelanjan Sircar, How Political Parties Choose their candidate to win elections, Hindustan Times, Mar 26,
2018,https://www.hindustantimes.com/opinion/how-political-parties-choose-their-candidates-to-win-
elections/story-26nqJKdMEQfYm8Uq29tbwJ.html
6
Cliffnotes, The Functions of Political Parties, (May. 13, 2020 11:00 PM), https://www.cliffsnotes.com/study-
guides/american-government/political-parties/the-functions-of-political-parties
7
Representation of people Act, 1951, No. 43, Act of Parliament, 1951 (India), S. 29 B

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income in each financial year, and this report is to be submitted to the election commission
for getting the tax benefit 8.

BRING POLITICAL PARTIES UNDER RTI: A STRUGGLE

The struggle to bring political party under the purview of RTI has a long history. The
Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) had filed an application under the Right to
Information Act (RTI) to all the national parties on 29th of October 2010 requesting
information about the “10 maximum voluntary contributions” received by them in the past
five years, but none of the political parties came forward to reveal this information. While
one of the National Parties, Indian National Congress (INC) replied promptly saying that it
does not fall within the purview of the RTI Act, whereas other national parties like Bharatiya
Janata Party (BJP) did not even bother to reply. Association for Democratic Reforms then
filed a complaint, and another complaint was filed by Subhash Agarwal (RTI activist) with
the CIC. The case was contested for the next three years9.

Finally, on the said complaint a full bench of the CIC delivered a landmark judgment on June
3rd, 2013 declaring INC, BJP, CPI (M), CPI, NCP and BSP as “Public Authorities” within the
purview of the RTI Act. Accordingly, these political parties were directed to designate Chief
Public Information Officers (CPIOs) and the Appellate Authorities at their Headquarters
within “six weeks”. The CPIOs so appointed were required to respond to the RTI applications
extracted in the CIC’s order in ‘four weeks10.

After the passage of 17 months of the CIC’s order, none of the six political parties complied
with the CIC’s order. The commission issued show-cause notices to the political parties for
non-compliance hearing on 21st November 2014. But all the parties were conspicuously
absented from the hearing. The co-petitioners in the case, Mr. Subhash Aggarwal and ADR
requested the CIC to impose penalties on these parties under Section 20 of the RTI Act. Both
the petitioners also in their respective prayers before the bench of CIC pleaded that they
should be provided exemplary compensation under Section 19 of RTI Act11. Meanwhile, on
12th August 2013, the Right to Information (Amendment) Bill, 2013, was introduced in the
Lok Sabha. This bill intended to remove political parties from the ambit of the definition of
8
Representation of people Act, 1951, No. 43, Act of Parliament, 1951 (India), S. 29 C
9
Supra note 2.
10
Supra note 2.
11
Supra note 2.

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“Public Authorities” and hence from the purview of the RTI Act. The amendment was
intended to be applied retrospectively, with effect from June 3, 201312. The Bill was referred
to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and Justice
by the Hon’ble Chairman on 12th September 201313. The Committee observed that the
aspects of transparency of the financial matters of the political parties are fully covered under
the laws and mechanisms14. The Committee understands that none of the six political parties,
who were the respondents to the CIC order of 3rd June 2013, challenged the order in the
higher judiciary. That was an option with those political parties, which they did not exercise.
As the instant case is a “case of misinterpretation” of clear provisions of law15 the Bill finally
lapsed.

On 19th May 2015, a PIL was filed by ADR in the Supreme Court to bring the political
parties within the ambit of the RTI16. On 22nd July 2016, other complaints filed by R.K Jain
and other petitions were also clubbed for hearing17. The original bench constituted of three
members who heard the matter for five months but then the Chief Information Commissioner,
RK Mathur constituted a new bench comprising himself and three other information
commissioners. The hearing with the new bench was to start on 16th August 2017.

On 7th April 2019, The public interest litigation (PIL) filed by Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay, a
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader, was to declare political parties registered under section
29A of Representation of People Act, 1951 as “public authority” under the Right to
Information Act, 2005, (RTI)18. His plea also included that all registered and recognized
political parties should be directed to appoint a public information officer and appellate
authority within four weeks and make disclosures in the letter and spirit of the RTI Act19. The
Supreme Court has issued a notice to the centre and the Election Commission (EC) on an

12
PRS legislative research, summary report, The Right to Information (Amendment) Bill, 2013,(May. 20, 2020
11:00PM)http://www.prsindia.org/sites/default/files/bill_files/Bill_Summary_--
_The_RTI_Amendment_Bill_2013.pdf
13
SIXTY SIXTH REPORT ,The Right to Information (Amendment) Bill, 2013 (Presented to the Rajya Sabha
on 17th December, 2013) (Laid on the Table of Lok Sabha on 17th December, 2013) Rajya Sabha Secretariat,
New Delhi December, 2013/ Agrahayana, 1935 (Saka).
14
Id at para 17.
15
Id at para 18.
16
Association for Democratic Reforms v. Union of India, Civil Writ petition of 2015 in the Supreme Court of
India, (May. 25, 2020 8:40 PM)
https://adrindia.org/sites/default/files/PIL%20filed%20by%20ADR%20in%20the%20Supreme%20Court%20to
%20bring%20Political%20Parites%20Under%20RTI.pdf
17
Ibid.
18
Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay v. Union of India, Civil Writ Petition of 2019 in the Supreme Court of India,
(May. 31, 2020 11:30 PM) https://www.livelaw.in/pdf_upload-359541.pdf
19
Ibid.

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application seeking political parties to be declared public authorities to make them

transparent and accountable to the public. This matter is still pending before the Supreme
Court.

TESTS TO COVER POLITICAL PARTIES UNDER THE PURVIEW OF

RTI, ACT 2005
To bring any institution, organisation, etc., under the umbrella of Right to Information Act,
2005, the first criteria which is to be established is whether that body, institution,
organisation, etc., is a public authority or not?

DEFINITION OF “PUBLIC AUTHORITY”

“Public authority” is defined in Section 2(h) of the Right to Information Act, 2005. It states:

“public authority” means any authority or body or institution of self- government

established or constituted20 -
(a) by or under the Constitution;
(b) by any other law made by Parliament;
(c) by any other law made by the state legislature;
(d) by notification issued or order made by the appropriate Government, and
includes any—
(i) body owned, controlled or substantially financed;
(ii) non-government organization substantially financed, directly or
indirectly by funds provided by the appropriate Government”

The Act thus defines public authorities in two parts. The first part of the definition clause,
2(h) sub clause (a) to (d) delineate bodies created by the Constitution of India, Union and
State Executives, Election Commission, etc., by-laws made by Parliament and State
Legislatures (Central and State Universities, Regulators such as Reserve Bank of India,
Telecom Regulatory Authority of India etc.), and by government orders or notifications
(Planning Commission) as public authorities21. The second part broadens the scope of the
definition of a public authority to include any ‘body’ owned, controlled or substantially

20
The right to Information Act, 2005 (India), S. 2(h).
21
Accountability Initiative, RTI Brief , Who is a Public Authority under the Right to Information Act,
2005?(May. 17, 2020 01:14 AM), http://accountabilityindia.in/sites/default/files/rti_brief_no._5-
_who_is_a_public_authority_0.pdf

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financed, and any non-governmental body substantially financed by the appropriate

government. The second part of the definition has been the subject of much controversy
largely because it leaves the question of what constitutes (a) ownership, (b) control or/and (c)
substantial financing open to interpretation. Unsurprisingly, therefore, most of the cases
related to the question of public authorities are linked to this aspect of the definition22.

One of the controversies here is that the body which is constituted or created by the law i.e.
the entities, which are registered under different laws become public authorities merely by the
reason of their incorporation or registration. The Delhi High court decided this issue and held
that mere registration or incorporation will not automatically give the status of “public
authority” to a body23. Therefore any company which is incorporated under the Companies
Act, 1956 or under the Companies Act, 2013 does not become a “public authority” under
section 2(h) (d) of the Right to Information Act, 2005, merely based on incorporation.

INTERPRETATION OF THE “PUBLIC AUTHORITIES”

As discussed earlier, the second part of the definition of the “Public Authority” is more
controversial. The decision of the court on these issues i.e. government control, substantial
financing by the government, and the performance of public functions are varied and
contradictory. High Courts have considered entities to be controlled by the government based
on the following:
(a) the definition of “State” under Article 12 of the Constitution.24 However most courts have
held that the test given under Article 12 is not relevant for the RTI Act25, and;
(b) supervision and regulation by the government agencies under laws such as the Kerala
State Co-operatives Act.26 Some courts have also taken the opposite views arguing that
regulation and supervision cannot be equated with control.27

22
Ibid.
23
National Stock Exchange of India Limited v. Central Information Commission, WP (C) No. 4748 of 2007, 15
April 2010 Delhi High Court.
24
Dr. Panjabrao Deshmukh Urban Co-operative Bank Ltd., Vidarbha Region v State Information Commissioner
AIR 2009 Bom 75.
25
M.P.Varghese v. Mahatma Gandhi University AIR 2007 Ker 230; KrishakBharti Cooperative Ltd. v. Ramesh
Chander Bawa W.P. (C) 6129/2007, 14 May 2010 Delhi High Court; IFCI Ltd v. RavinderBalwani,II(2011)BC
69.
26
Mulloor Rural Co-operative Society Ltd v. State of Kerala ILR 2012(2) Kerala 576; Hindu Urban Cooperative
Bank Ltd v. State Information Commission (2011)ILR 2 Punjab and Haryana 64
27
Dr. Panjabrao Deshmukh Urban Co-operative Bank Ltd., Vidarbha Region v State Information Commissioner
AIR 2009 Bom 75; Nagar Yuwak Shikshan Sanstha v. Maharashtra State Information Commission AIR 2010
Bom 1.

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In the case of Substantial financing, benefits which are received by the institutions like
contribution, share capital, land allotment, etc. are considered to be substantially financed.
For example, the Indian Olympic Association was considered to be a “public authority”
because the Central Government paid the travel expenses of the players, and provided 85% of
their living expenses.28 Based on these criteria, High Courts have brought several entities
within the ambit of “public authority” like Autonomous institutions such as:
 sports associations - Indian Olympic Association29, Chandigarh Laws Tennis
Association30, Registered societies
 cooperatives - Jullundar Gymkhana and Sutlej Club31, Mulloor Rural Co-operative
Society Ltd.32

“PUBLIC AUTHORITY” AND THE POLITICAL PARTY: TESTS

The object behind this test is to establish the position of political parties that, whether the
political parties fall under the ambit of RTI Act or not? If a political party complies with the
test for public authority, then it may be said that political parties are a public authority and it
falls under the purview of RTI Act and if it does not comply with the same it is not a “public
authority” and it does not fall under the ambit of RTI Act, 2005.

 Established Under the Constitution

Any authority or body or institution of self-government established or constituted under the

Constitution of India is said to be the “public authority” for the RTI Act, 2005. If we examine
the status of Political Parties, it enjoys the freedom guaranteed under Article 19 (1) (c) of the
constitution which gives all citizens of India to form associations or Union of Co-operative
Societies. If we further examine the essential condition to form a Political Party then we will
find that every member of a Political Party must be a citizen of India.33 So, it is very clear by
this provision that political parties enjoy the freedom of association guaranteed under the
Constitution.

28
Indian Olympic Association v. Veeresh Malik W.P.(C) No. 876/2007.
29
Ibid
30
Hindu Urban Cooperative Bank Ltd v. State Information Commission (2011)ILR 2 P&H 64
31
Ibid.
32
Mulloor Rural Co-operative Society Ltd v. State of Kerala ILR 2012(2) Kerala 576.
33
Representation of people Act, 1951, No. 43, Act of Parliament, 1951 (India), Sec.29A (1)

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 Constituted under any other law made by Parliament

Any authority or body or institution of self-government established or constituted under any

law made by the parliament is “public authority” for the RTI Act, 2005. A Political Party is
also constituted under the Parliamentary Act i.e Representation of the People Act, 1951.
Section 29 -A provides certain conditions for a political party to form and get registered by
the Election Commission of India.

 It must consist of only Indian citizens.34

 It must call itself a political party set up to contest elections to the Parliament and
State Legislatures and for no other purpose.35

An application for registration along with all supporting documents36 is to be submitted to the
Secretary of the Election Commission of India (hereinafter ECI) in the prescribed format.37

Also, after a Political Party has been registered by the ECI, it is its legal duty to keep the ECI
duly informed of any change in its name, head office, office-bearers, address, or in any other
material matters.38

 Body owned, Controlled and Substantially financed

The Political Parties enjoy government funds directly and indirectly in many ways39like
allotment of lands. Indirect Financing to the Political Parties by allotment of large tracts of
lands in the prime areas free of cost, or at a concessional rate, allotment of lands in State
Capitals, Allotments of land to the Political Parties in the State Capitals as well,
accommodations or bungalows at concessional rentals, directorate of an estate has allotted
bungalows to the political parties at a highly concessional rate, this is nothing but a form of
indirect financing to the Parties, the Central Government also provides total tax exemption to
the political parties. Total exemption from the payment of income tax against the incomes of
the parties under section 13- A of the Income Tax Act 1961. Income from donations or

34
Ibid.
35
Ibid.
36
Representation of people Act, 1951, No. 43, Act of Parliament, 1951 (India), 29-A (4).
37
Representation of people Act, 1951, No. 43, Act of Parliament, 1951 (India), 29-A (3).
38
Representation of people Act, 1951, No. 43, Act of Parliament, 1951 (India), 29-A (9).
39
Supra note 2.

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income of electoral trust distributing its income or contribution or surplus to political parties
is also exempted under Section 13B of the Income Tax Act 1961, including any sum
contributed by Indian companies to any political party under Section 80 GGB of Income Tax
Act, 1961.40

The following incomes derived by a political party are also not included in computing of its
total income.

(i) Income chargeable under the head “Income from House Property”.
(ii) Income chargeable under the head “Income from other sources”.
(iii) Income by way of capital gains.
(iv) Income by voluntary contribution from any person.

Also, vide Taxation Law (Amendment) Act 1978, an indirect subsidy was given to political
parties by not charging income tax on certain sources or heads of income, which was later on
further extended via vide Finance Act, 2003. This step was taken to give financial assistance
to political parties indirectly. While such incentives or deductions are given to other entities
only to promote certain socio-economic objectives and not to give financial subsidy as such.
This all exemption to the political parties is given without any conditions while socio-
economic incentives given in the income tax Act are subject to fulfilment of certain
conditions.41

The political parties also enjoy free airtime on Doordarshan Television and All India Radio
During the Lok Sabha Elections and State Assembly Elections. The Political Parties are
allotted airtime slots on Doordarshan TV and All India Radio, absolutely free of any charge.
They are also given the privilege in broadcasting, thus, the State contributes to the working of
all the political parties and it is not restricted to only the national parties but applies to
regional parties as well42.

 Donation received by the political party

Political parties are entitled to receive donations voluntarily. To fight elections and run their
routine activities, political parties in India seek donations from all possible sources including

40
Mr. Anil Bairwal v. Parliament of India, Central Information Commission, (File no.
CIC/SM/C/2011/001386).
41
Supra note 2.
42
Supra note 2.

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interested money. This has serious ramifications in preserving the integrity of Indian
democracy43.

Every political party may accept any amount of contribution voluntarily offered to it by any
person or company other than a Government company.44 But no Political Party is entitled to
receive any contribution from the foreign source defined under clause (e) of section 2 of the
Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 1976 (49 of 1976)45.

When a sum of money or other contributions are collected from the public then it is supposed
to be transparent and all the collections and expenditures of the collection must be shared
with the contributors. For this purpose in the Representation of People Act, 1951, there is
explicit provision for the disclosure46, but this is only limited to the contributions which are
more than the amount of 20,000 (twenty thousand rupees)47. The amount below to 20,000 is
exempted from the disclosure. The second aspect is that the political party is only under
obligation to disclose this information to the Election commission of India48and the party is
not under obligation to disclose this information to any person other than the election
commission.

INTEREST OF THE OPPOSITION PARTY

One of the other important aspects is if the political party will fall under the purview of RTI
Act, 2005, then the different information will come into the public domain, which may be
misused by the opposition party for their benefit. A solution to this question is given by the
RTI Act itself. If we analyse the Section 8 of the Right to Information Act, it is very clear that
information which relates to personal information, the disclosure of which has no relationship
to any public activity or interest, or which would cause an unwarranted invasion of the
privacy of the individual49 cannot be disclosed. So this section may provide immunity to the
Political Parties in disclosing the personal information or the information which has no

43
Niranjan Sahoo, Towards Public Financing of Elections and Political Parties in India: Lessons from Global
Experiences (2017) (Jun, 05, 2020 8:57 PM) https://www.orfonline.org/research/towards-public-financing-
elections-political-parties-india-lessons-global-experiences/
44
Representation of people Act, 1951, No. 43, Act of Parliament, 1951 (India), S. 29- B.
45
Ibid.
46
Representation of people Act, 1951, No. 43, Act of Parliament, 1951 (India), S. 29 C
47
Representation of people Act, 1951, No. 43, Act of Parliament, 1951 (India), S. 29, (c) (a) and (b)
48
Representation of people Act, 1951, No. 43, Act of Parliament, 1951 (India), S. 29(C) (3)
49
The Right To Information Act, 2005 No. 22, Acts of Parliament, 2005 (India),Sec. 8 (j)

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relationship with the public activity and which is only demanded for the personal benefits of
the other party.50

It is also to be noted that the citizens of India have a right to know about the affairs of the
government i.e, the affairs of the public authority, but these rights are not absolute and it can
be restricted in exceptional circumstances. The court states that when disclosure of the
documents and the information is contradictory to the public interest that it is restricted to
disclose such information or records51. A democratic form of Government requires
accountability but it can be accountable only when the transparency is maintained but the
access of the transparency may sometimes cause problems to the Government as sometimes
the information is of such a nature that the secrecy should be maintained. Transparency is a
safeguard to the political authorities but totalitarian transparency can lead to inefficiency to
the Government.

CONSTITUTIONAL GUARANTEES
The fact that the right to information is included in the constitutional guarantees of freedom
of speech and expression under Article 19(1)(a) of the constitution of India has been
recognised by Supreme Court decisions in various cases challenging governmental control
over newsprint and bans on the “distribution” of newspapers. In the case of Sakal Papers (P)
Ltd., and Others v. The Union of India52 the petitioner, publishers of one of the leading
National Dailies, challenged restrictions in the Newsprint Control order on the acquisition,
sale, and use of newsprint. The Supreme Court struck down the restrictions on the basis that
they interfered with the petitioner’s right to publish and circulate their paper freely, which
was included in their right to freedom of speech and expression. In a subsequent case, Bennet
Colemanns co. and Others v. Union of India53 the Supreme Court held that media controlled
by public bodies were required to allow both sides of an issue to be aired. The overall impact
of these decisions has been to establish clearly that the right to freedom of information, or the
public’s right to know, is embedded in the provisions guaranteeing fundamental rights in the
Constitution.

50
Nikhil Goel, Disclosure v. Non- Disclosure of Information Under RTI Act, 2005, Amity Law School Noida,
(Jun. 10, 2020 12:45 PM),
https://cic.gov.in/sites/default/files/Disclosure%20vs.%20Non%20Disclosure%20of%20Information%20Under
%20RTI%20Act%2C%202005%20by%20Nikhil%20Goel.pdf
51
Dinesh Trevedi v. Union of India; (1997) 4 SCC 306
52
1962 SCR (3) 842
53
1973 SCR (2) 757

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Volume IIssue VIII| January 2021 ISSN: 2582-6433

CONCLUSION
A political party is an association of a group having the same ideology. This group enjoys the
freedom of association which is guaranteed under Article 19 (1) (c) of the Indian
Constitution. In the political party, only the person who is a citizen of India is allowed to be a
member of the party. The main function of the political party is to send their nominee in the
general election. There are different categories of a political party like the national party, a
regional party, etc. One of the recent issues which came up on 29th of October 2010 was
whether the political parties fall within the purview of RTI Act or not? When an RTI
application was filed by the Association of Democratic Reform seeking information
regarding the total fund collected in the form of donation and contribution of that financial
year. It was decided by the Central Information Commission on 3rd June of 2013, that the
political parties fall under the purview of RTI Act, and held that political party is “Public
Authority” within the meaning of Section 2 (h) of the RTI Act, 2005. Though the case is still
pending in the Supreme Court of India, whether the political party comes under the purview
of Right to Information Act, 2005 or not?

For determination of any “body”, “organisation”, “association” etc., falling within the
purview of the RTI Act the first criteria is to establish that the “body”, ‘organisation’,
“association” etc., is a public authority. From the above discussion, it can be observed that
the Political party is recognised by the Act of parliament and also it enjoys the freedom to
form an association which is guaranteed under the Constitution. It can also be observed from
the above discussion that the political party is directly and indirectly funded by the
government as the political party is allotted land, exemption from taxes, free air-time
broadcasting, etc., and also the political is entitled to receive the funds from the public and
companies other than the government companies. So, by referring to these provisions,
observation of the 66th Report of Rajya Sabha, and the decision of the central Information
commissioner, it can be said that political parties must come within the ambit of Right to
Information Act, 2005, and it must also be accountable to the public at large.

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Volume IIssue VIII| January 2021 ISSN: 2582-6433

SUGGESTIONS
Following are some suggestions of the researcher:

 All the funds collected by the political party directly or indirectly from the public,
organisation, companies or government, must be suo motu disclosed.
 There must be an official website for every political party.
 Every contributor must be given a unique contribution ID.
 Every information about contribution must be published on the official website of the
party, with the name of the contributor and the unique contribution ID, So that at the
last of the financial year, contributors may check their name in the contribution list.
 Every expenditure must also be published on the official website.
 At least 80% of the contributed money is supposed to be transacted through online
transactions.

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