-The Times of India NEW DELHI: An ordinance to implement the Food Security Act was held back from being placed before the Cabinet on Tuesday as the government deliberated if it should press ahead or still explore other options like a special session of Parliament. The government had veered around to adopting the ordinance route and the proposal was sent to the cabinet secretariat after law minister Kapil Sibal made a few...

-The Indian Express Bringing Political Parties under RTI is a bad, and anti-political, idea In a radical ruling, the chief information commissioner has decided that Political Parties should be open to scrutiny under the right to information. Six national parties have been asked to appoint officers to handle requests, and proactively share information about their finances and voluntary contributions, including donor information. The logic is that parties get public land and offices,...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Unease among Political Parties over being brought under the purview of the RTI Act became evident on Tuesday with Congress strongly opposed the Central Information Commission (CIC) order and BJP also expressing its reservations. Barring CPI, no political party welcomed the decision. CPM said it cannot accept the CIC order as it felt opponents can use the ruling to "undermine" a political party. Janata Dal (U)...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: BJP leader and cricket administrator Arun Jaitley on Tuesday said the Central Information Commission (CIC) ruling bringing Political Parties within the ambit of Right to Information (RTI) Act was per se not wrong as long as it applied to their funding. However, he was quick to introduce caveats. "The CIC logic behind applying RTI Act to Political Parties is that they are given land at concessional...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Civil society members and RTI activists sharply criticized Political Parties for their reluctance to accept the Central Information Commission (CIC) order bringing them under the RTI Act. In a reflection of their cautious stance, the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) - the main applicant who had sought information on donors to Political Parties - filed a caveat on Tuesday with the court to prevent any...