28 `‡ji Avw_©K †jb‡`b GKwU †iwRóvW© PvUvW© GKvDw›Us dvg© Øviv AwWU KivBqv AwWU wi‡cv‡U©i GKwU Kwc Kwgk‡b `vwLj; (M) Kwgkb, mgq mgq, †h mKj Z_¨ ev KvMRcÎ Pvwn‡e Dnv Kwgk‡b †cÖiY; Ges (N) Kwgkb, mgq mgq, †h mKj wel‡qi Dci gšÍe¨ ev e¨vL¨v Pvwn‡e Dnv cwicvjb | Ó In view of the above provisions of law, the registered political parties are required to submit their audited statements of accounts to the Election Commission and soon after submission of such statements it falls under the category of ‘information’ as defined in the RTI Act. Moreover, soon after submission of the said audited statements it becomes “public document” under section 74 (2) of the Evidence Act, 1872. Therefore, the Election Commission being an authority under the said Act is under obligation to provide the concerned information to the petitioners. However, section 9(8) of the RTI Act, 2009 sets out the procedures for dealing with third-party’s “secret information” as referred to in sections 7(c), (d), (o) and (r) of the said Act. The said provision of section 9 (8) of the RTI Act is quoted below“Where an officer-in-charge thinks that the request made for information under sub-section (1) of section 8 is appropriate, and such information has been supplied by a third party or a third party’s interest is involved in it and the third party has considered it as secret information, the officer-in-charge shall cause a notice to be served upon the third party within 5 (five) working days for written or oral opinion, and if the third party gives any opinion in response to such