New Delhi: The Delhi High Court has directed the Central Information Commission to decide in six months a complaint against Congress President Sonia Gandhi on the issue of non-compliance of transparency panel's directions that the party was answerable under the RTI Act.
Noted RTI activist RK Jain had approached the Commission with his complaint against Gandhi saying that the party had returned his RTI application dated February 7, 2014 without answering.
A full bench of the Commission had declared Congress along with five other national parties-- BJP, CPI, CPI-M, NCP and BSP-- as public authorities making them answerable under the RTI Act.
Refusal to provide information or not furnishing complete information is deemed an offence under the RTI which attracts a penalty of Rs 250 per day from the date information became due to the day it was furnished on the public information officer of the public authority.
None of the political party has so far received any stay order against the decision of the Commission declaring these parties as public authorities which implies that they must adopt the procedures of processing the RTI application as given in the transparency law.
But when Jain sent his RTI application, seeking to know from Congress party the steps taken by it to implement the RTI Act and designated officials to respond to the RTI applications, the party refused to "take delivery" and returned the envelope.
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