Disadvantages Of Right To Information

a. Indirect Finance amounts to fall in the ambit of the “Substantial Financing” for the Purposes of s.2 (h) of the RTI Act:

According to section 2(h) (ii), any non-governmental organization which is substantially financed, directly or indirectly, by funds provided by the appropriate government would become a public authority for the purpose of the Right to Information Act. There are two questions in existence, the first one being whether these political parties are being substantially financed directly or indirectly, by funds provided by the appropriate government and the other one that what “substantial” can be understood in accordance to the Right to Information Act,2005 .

In Shri Balwant Singh Khera’s case the Central Information Commission in its order held that, Political Parties are a unique institution of the modern constitutional State. These are essentially civil society institutions and are, therefore, non-governmental. “It will be a fallacy to hold that transparency is good for the bureaucracy but not good enough for the Political Parties which control those bureaucracies through political executives” (emphasis supplied). The Commission further observed that there is unmistakable public interest in knowing these funding details which would enable the citizen to make an informed choice about the Political Parties to vote for. The RTI Act emphasizes that “democracy requires an informed citizenry” and that transparency of information is vital to flawless