RIGHT TO INFORMATION ACT ( RTI )

RIGHT TO INFORMATION ACT

T o enable citizens to access information under the
control of public authorities in order to promote
transparency and accountability in the working of
every public authority, the Right to Information Act was
enacted in 2005 by the Government of India.

To seek information, the following steps need to be
followed:

Step 1 : Identifying the issue

Step 2 : Identifying the relevant department of the government. (However
the law mandates the "Public Information Officer" (PIO) to
transfer the application to relevant department in case the
applicant refers the application to the wrong department. In no
case can the application be returned to the applicant.)

Step 3 : On a plain sheet paper, addressed to the ‘Public Information
Officer of the relevant department of the states( the central Public Information
Officer if address to the central Government).
write down your questions. This can be in a simple letter format
with the subject : Application under Right to Information Act
2005 (there is no prescribed application form under the law for
filing an RTI application.)

Step 4 : Payment of the fees – The application fees for the states and
the Central Government is Rs.10/- The following modes of
payments are acceptable:
Affixing court stamp / payment in cash to the relevant
department (insist for a receipt / acknowledgement) / Payment
at Treasury under RTI account head (the receipt should be
attached to the application and sent by Registered Post with
Acknowledgement Due.) / Demand Draft addressed to the
Public Information Officer of the relevant department(this DD
should be attached to the application and sent by Registered
Post with Acknowledgement Due) / Payment at any branch
of ‘State Bank of India’ under RTI account head (the receipt
should be attached to the application and sent by Registered
Post with Acknowledgement Due.)
NOTE : For Central Government Departments, payments
can be made through Cash, Demand Drafts, Postal Orders
of through RTI counters at the nearest court office.

Step 5 : The PIO should respond within 30 days of receipt of the
application failing which the applicant should make the 1st
appeal to the ‘Appellate Authority’ of the same department.
The appeal should be addressed to the ‘Appellate Authority’
(the postal address is usually the same as the PIO).

Step 6 : The Appellate Authority gets another 30 days to respond failing
which the applicant can make the 2nd appeal to the ‘State
Information Commission’ (for the state government departments)
or ‘Central Information Commission’ (for central government
departments) as the case may be.

Remember that you cannot seek information from the
intelligence and security organisations established by the
Government as this could pose a threat to the Nation’s security