The Centre on Monday reportedly told the apex court that political parties cannot be brought under the control of Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005 as it will affect their smooth functioning.
The affidavit was filed by the Centre after the apex court had last month sought responses from the Centre, the Election Commission and six political parties, including Congress and BJP, on a plea to declare all national and regional political parties “public authorities” to bring them under the ambit of the RTI Act.
Lawyer Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the NGO ‘The Association for Democratic Reforms’ had approached SC seeking transparency and accountability in functioning of recognised national and regional political parties.
It had claimed that the political parties received huge sums of money in form of donations and contributions from corporates, trusts and individuals but do not disclose complete information about the source of such donations.
In its plea, the NGO had urged the apex court to direct all national and regional parties to mandatorily disclose details about their income as well as expenditure.
