ASSOCIATION FOR DEMOCRATIC REFORMS Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The Association for Democratic Reforms and Common Cause have joined together and come up with the above Public Interest Litigation praying for the:

(2.) On 3.10.2017, notice was ordered in the writ petition and the writ petition was directed to be tagged along with Writ Petition (C) No.333 of 2015 and Special Leave Petition (C) No.18190 of 2014. Though Writ Petition (C) No.333 of 2015 was also by the Association for Democratic Reforms and another person, the reliefs sought therein were little different. The prayers made in the said writ petition were for (i) a declaration that all national and regional political parties are public authorities under the Right to Information Act, 2005; (ii) a direction to the Election Commission of India to collect all information concerning the finances of political parties; (iii) a direction to all national and regional political parties to mandatorily disclose complete details about their income, expenditure, donations and funding as well as full details of the donors.

(3.) On 12.4.2019 this Court passed an interim order in common in Writ Petition (C) Nos.333 of 2015, 880 of 2017 and two other writ petitions. Paragraphs 11 to 15 of the said interim order read as follows: