How to File an RTI Application — Format, ₹10 Fee, and the 30-Day Clock
Any citizen can file an RTI application to any public authority: write your questions, pay the ₹10 fee, and address it to the department's Public Information Officer — online at rtionline.gov.in for central departments, or by post/state portals for state bodies. The PIO must reply within 30 days (48 hours for life-and-liberty matters). First appeal is free; second appeal goes to the Information Commission.
कायदेशीर मुदती
- 30 days — PIO must reply (from receipt (48 hrs life/liberty))
- 5 days — Transfer to right authority (if misaddressed, s.6(3) transfer)
- 30 days — First appeal (from reply/deadline lapse; to senior officer)
- 90 days — Second appeal (to the Information Commission)
पायरी-पायरीने: काय करावं
- 1
Frame questions that must be answered
Ask for records and specifics, not opinions.
तपशील पहा
RTI (Right to Information Act, 2005) fetches information held in records: file notings, status of your application, copies of documents, reasons recorded, action taken on a complaint, expenditure details. Ask numbered, specific questions ("provide the current status and file noting on application no. X dated Y"). PIOs cannot answer "why is the department inefficient" — they must supply records. Exemptions (s.8 — security, privacy of others, cabinet papers) exist but are narrow and the PIO must justify invoking them.
- 2
File it: online, post, or in person
rtionline.gov.in for the centre; state portals or post for states.
तपशील पहा
आम्ही हे तुमच्यासाठी करतो — ₹199Central ministries/departments: rtionline.gov.in — pay the ₹10 fee online and track digitally. State bodies: the state RTI portal where one exists, or registered post to "The Public Information Officer, [department]" with a ₹10 IPO/court-fee stamp/DD per state rules. BPL applicants pay nothing (attach proof). No reasons need be given for seeking information — the Act forbids asking why. Our ₹199 service drafts the application with legally-tight questions.
- 3
The 30-day clock and what replies must contain
Information, or a justified refusal — silence is a deemed refusal.
तपशील पहा
The PIO must respond within 30 days (35 via assistant PIO; 48 hours where life or liberty is at stake). Copying charges (₹2/page) may be demanded — the clock pauses till you pay. A refusal must cite the exact exemption; silence beyond 30 days is a deemed refusal and the information must then be provided free. Misaddressed applications must be transferred to the right authority within 5 days (s.6(3)) — so a wrong guess still works.
- 4
Appeals: free, and they bite
First appeal in-house; second to the Information Commission.
तपशील पहा
No/bad reply? File the first appeal within 30 days to the department's First Appellate Authority (free; cite the application and the failure). Still stuck: second appeal within 90 days to the Central/State Information Commission — which can order disclosure and impose penalties up to ₹25,000 on the PIO personally (₹250/day of delay). That personal penalty is why RTI appeals get answered. Persistent stonewalling on public-interest matters can also go to the High Court.
खर्च आणि काय अपेक्षित
- ₹10
Application fee
Free for BPL card holders
- ₹2/page
Copying charges
A4; inspection of records ₹5/hour after first hour
- Free
First + second appeals
No fee at either appellate stage (most states)
- ₹199
Professionally drafted RTI
WakilBhai; free format below
RTI applies to public authorities — government departments, PSUs, and substantially government-funded bodies. Private companies are outside it directly, but information about them held by regulators is fair game.
या अडचणीसाठी मोफत नमुने
वारंवार विचारले जाणारे प्रश्न
Can the department ask why I want the information?
No — Section 6(2) expressly bars asking for reasons. You need only your contact details and the fee. Any PIO demanding justification is violating the Act; note it in your first appeal.
What if I sent the RTI to the wrong department?
Section 6(3) obliges the receiving authority to transfer it to the correct one within 5 days and inform you. Your 30-day clock runs from the transferee's receipt. So file your best guess rather than not filing.
What information can be refused?
Section 8 exemptions: national security, trade secrets and commercial confidence, personal information with no public-interest nexus, cabinet papers pending decision, and information barred by courts. Even then, severability applies — the non-exempt part must be given — and the public-interest override can defeat several exemptions.
The PIO simply never replied. What now?
That is a deemed refusal: file the first appeal citing the lapse — information ordered after a deemed refusal comes free of copying charges. If the first appeal also fails, the second appeal puts the PIO at risk of a personal penalty up to ₹25,000, which reliably concentrates minds.
Can RTI help my stuck personal file (pension, certificate, complaint)?
It is the classic use: ask for the current status, the officer holding the file, file notings, and the prescribed timeline for disposal. Files move when inaction becomes a documented record with names attached — many stuck matters resolve within the 30-day RTI window itself.
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हे पृष्ठ फक्त सर्वसामान्य माहितीसाठी नेहमीची कायदेशीर प्रक्रिया समजावतं. हा कायदेशीर सल्ला नाही. तुमच्या परिस्थितीसाठी पात्र वकिलाचा सल्ला घ्या.