Leader of Opposition covered under RTI

In a recent decision, the Central Information Commission has held that there is no exception to the coverage of the Right to Information Act for the Leader of the Opposition in the Parliament. Deciding in appeal against the denial of information to leading RTI activist Subash Chandra Agrawal by the office of the Leader of Opposition, the Chief Information Commissioner Wajahat Habibullah declared as under;

"In this case we find the office of Leader of the Opposition has been established by Notification issued by Government in the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs and is financed directly by funds provided by the Govt. of India. It is not material as to who has issued orders of appointment so long as the personnel of the office of Leader of the Opposition function under the Control of the public authority to which they are appointed. In this case that is so, even though the staff may be under the administrative control of the Lok Sabha Secretariat. The office of the Leader of the Opposition, therefore, is a public authority in its own right, which then makes it subject to the obligations of any public authority under the RTI Act"

Have a look at the decision.