Supreme Court says political parties ‘have a point’ when they fear RTI may encroach into their internal decision-making

political parties fear that accountability under Right to Information (RTI) Act may stretch to even disclosure of internal decisions, including why they chose a particular candidate.

Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud on Tuesday orally observed that political parties may “have a point” when they fear that accountability under Right to Information (RTI) Act may stretch to even disclosure of internal decisions, including why they chose a particular candidate.

The Chief Justice, leading a three-judge Bench, was hearing a batch of petitions seeking a declaration that national and regional political parties were “public authorities” under the RTI Act. Several parties, including the Congress and the BJP, are arraigned as respondents in this case.

The Communist Party of India (Marxist), represented by advocate P.V. Dinesh, said it supported the cause of financial transparency of political parties in the area of financial matters, but was against parties being compelled to reveal confidential information like “which candidate was selected for what reasons and what discussions happened within the political party, etc”.

“They have a point. They say, don’t ask us to disclose how we chose our candidates… I don’t think you can do that,” Chief Justice Chandrachud addressed advocate Prashant Bhushan and senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, appearing for the petitioners.

“Basically they want to know how parties function,” Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the government, intervened.

But Mr. Sankaranarayanan countered that the top court had passed multiple orders in the past, directing political parties to publish/advertise/tweet the criminal antecedents of their candidates. “This has not been done,” he submitted.

The court scheduled the case for a detailed hearing on Tuesday.