Activists hail CIC judgement

Activist Subhash Agrawal and voluntary group Association for Democratic Reforms, who pleaded to bring political parties under the ambit of RTI Act, on Monday termed as a "landmark judgement" the CIC's decision holding that parties are answerable to citizens under the act.

Activist Subhash Agrawal and voluntary group Association for Democratic Reforms, who pleaded to bring political parties under the ambit of RTI Act, on Monday termed as a "landmark judgement" the CIC's decision holding that parties are answerable to citizens under the act.

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"CIC should be immensely complimented for passing this landmark judgement to enable the citizens of India so that they can access information about the political parties," Anil Bairwal of ADR, one of the RTI applicants in the case said in a statement.

He said political parties have long resisted opening themselves to public scrutiny while people have long been demanding that there should be complete transparency in their financial and internal functioning.

"Various commissions including Law Commission report, Election Commission and NCRCW have already recommended that political parties should demonstrate transparency through various measures," the statement said.

Activist Subhash Agrawal who filed the petitions with the Congress and the BJP also hailed the decision of the Commission and said it has set new benchmarks in the transparency regime.

Agrawal said the decision would also have impact on other cases pending before and decided by the CIC where subsidised land was a criteria for declaring a body as public authority.