No public interest in disclosing donor details, says RTI Top Body
During a recent major ruling, the Central Information Commission has held that disclosing the identities of the electoral bonds can’t be revealed as it is not in the public interest. The statutory body for the implementation of the RTI act dismissed an appeal by the Maharashtrian based activist Vihar Dhruve and stated that the provisions of the Right to Information Act would be violated if the details of the donors are revealed.
“There appears to be no larger public interest in overriding the right of privacy of donors and donees concerned”, says Suresh Chandra, the information commissioner. On the contrary, the activist believes the CIC order is unreasoned as there is no mention of the objections by the Election Commission, law ministry, or Reserve Bank of India.
The centre notified the electoral bond schemes on 2nd January 2018 to regulate the flowing of unaccounted money inside the Indian political system. Activists like Dhruve have been protesting against the electoral bond scheme’s non-transparency. According to them it potentially promotes black money circulation and money laundering.
The Election Commission and Reserve Bank of India have previously raised concerns and criticised electoral bond schemes as they believe it can have serious consequences on the transparency of political parties finance/funding.