BJP president Amit Shah is among those who have been issued with a show cause notice
The Chief Information Commission has issued show-cause notices to BJP President Amit Shah and Congress chief Sonia Gandhi along with the heads of four other political parties asking why an inquiry should not be instituted in the matter of non-compliance of its order to implement the RTI Act.
Last year, on a plea by activist Subhash Agrawal, the Central Information Commission (CIC) had declared six national parties -- Congress, BJP, NCP, CPI, CPI-M and BSP -- as public authorities, thereby bringing them under the ambit of the Right to Information Act.
However, none of the parties either contested the decision in courts or followed the instructions of the panel.
The Commission had issued notices on February 7 and March 25 to these political parties seeking their detailed comments on the complaint by Agrawal that they had not complied with
the orders of the CIC.
The move comes close on the heels of a Delhi High Court order which directed the Commission to decide in six months on a complaint against Congress chief Sonia Gandhi regarding the
issue of non-compliance with the transparency panel's directions that the party was answerable under the RTI Act.