The Union Government today told the Supreme Court that political parties cannot be brought under the ambit of Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005. The affidavit was filed by the Centre after the apex court had last month asked it to file a detailed reply on the issue. The top Court also sought reply from the Election Commission and six political parties, including the Congress and BJP

The SC is hearing a plea from the NGO, 'The Association for Democratic Reforms', which sought the intervention of the court to declare that all National and Regional political parties should be brought under the ambit of the RTI Act.

Senior advocate of the Apex Court, Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the NGO, had approached the SC seeking more transparency and accountability in functioning of recognised National and Regional political parties.

The NGO further claimed that various political parties received huge sums of money in form of donations and contributions from Corporates, Trusts and Individuals but allegedly do not disclose the complete detailed information about the source of receiving such donations.

In its plea, the NGO had sought the apex court to direct all National and Regional parties to compulsorily disclose the detailed account of their income and expenditure.

The petitioner had also sought that all political parties must declare their details of donations and funds received.