Supreme Court in State of UP vs Raj Narain

“In a government of responsibility like ours where the agents of the public must be responsible for thir conduct there can be but a few secrets. The people of this country have a right to know every public act, everything that is done in a public way by their public functionaries. They are entitled to know the particulars of every public transaction in all its bearings.”

How To Apply

In every Government Department – whether State or Central Department – one or more officers have been designated as Public Information Officers (PIOs). The PIO acts as the nodal officer for the implementation of Right to Information in that Department. He is supposed to receive applications from the people, collect information from that Department and then provide that information to the applicant. In some Departments, which are very huge, a number of officers have been designated as PIOs.

Any person desirous of obtaining information should apply on a plain paper (some state governments have prescribed their own application forms) to the concerned PIO. You should deposit Rs 10 application fee. This could be deposited either in cash or through DD or postal order. However, these rules and fee are different for different state governments.

Please note that it is very important the way you draft your questions. The information that you ask for should be very precise. If you ask vague questions, you will get vague answers. The trick is that you try to put yourself into the shoes of the PIO and ask yourself how would you have dodged the questions if you were the PIO and did not wish to provide information. This way, please try and sharpen your question as much as you can. Also, do not ask too many questions in one application. Though there is no bar on the number of questions that can be asked, however, it gives them an excuse that you have asked too many questions and are frivolous. So, if you wish to ask too much information, please break it up in several applications.

An RTI application will look like this:

Dated:

To

The PIO,

(Name and address of the Department)

Sub: Application under RTI Act 2005

Dear Sir,

Please provide following information:

1.

2.

3.

4.

Yours sincerely

Filing an Appeal?

If you do not receive information within 30 days or if you are not satisfied with the response received, you can file an appeal. The first appeal is to be filed with the officer senior to the PIO in the same Department. He is to take a decision within 30 days of your filing the appeal. If you do not get a satisfactory response within 30 days from the first appellate authority also, please file the second appeal with Information Commission. If you asked for information from a state government department, your appeal will go to State Information Commission. If it is Central government department, your appeal will go to Central Information Commission.