Digital RTI — the 2026 Guide — RTI Wiki Citizen Guide 2026

The definitive 2026 reference for digital RTI in India. Written for an applicant filing their first online RTI, a practitioner updating a drafting checklist for the DPDP era, and a researcher mapping the legislative changes. All dates, statutes, and portal statuses current as of 20 April 2026. Verify time-sensitive details against the relevant Government portal before filing.

• The triple-pillar framework
• Digital payments: UPI and Bharat %%BillPay%%
• Privacy and RTI: drafting in the DPDP era
• Modern citations: digital records as information
• Portal finder: State-wise online RTI status
• Call to action

The table of contents collapses automatically \u2014 click the heading to expand.

The Right to Information regime in India rests on three statutes, each answering a different question about an RTI application:

The foundation. The Right to Information Act, 2005 (No. 22 of 2005) establishes the right to information as a statutory, citizen-facing right. The Act derives its constitutional authority from Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution \u2014 freedom of speech and expression. The substantive structure \u2014 Section 3 (the right), Sections 6 and 7 (the procedure), Section 8 (the exemptions), Section 10 (severability), Sections 19 and 20 (appeals and penalty) \u2014 is unchanged in 2026.

• What it does. Gives every citizen of India a right to information held by a public authority.
• What it says. 30-day reply rule, first appeal within 30 days, second appeal within 90 days.
• Status in 2026. In force, unmodified in its substantive right.

See the current text of the Act, the section-by-section summary, and the decade-of-change essay.

The structural shift. Act 24 of 2019, effective 24 October 2019. Substituted Sections 13, 15, and 16 of the Act to move the tenure, salary, and service conditions of Information Commissioners from statutory parity with constitutional office-holders to Central Government rule-making.

• Tenure. From “five years or age 65, whichever earlier” to three years under the RTI Rules, 2019.
• Salary. From a link to the Chief Election Commissioner / Supreme Court Judge scale to Secretary-to-GoI scale.
• Scope. Central Government now fixes conditions even for State Information Commissioners.
• Status in 2026. In force. See the dedicated analysis.

The privacy shield. Section 44(3) of the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 was notified into force via the DPDP Rules, 2025 on 14 November 2025. The provision substituted Section 8(1)(j) of the RTI Act \u2014 aligning the personal-information exemption with the DPDP Act's definition of personal data.

• What changed. The in-clause “Parliament proviso” was removed.
• What did NOT change. Section 8(2) \u2014 the stand-alone public-interest override \u2014 is untouched and still applies to every Section 8(1) clause, including the amended (j).
• Status in 2026. In force. Writ petitions on constitutionality reported pending in the Delhi and Madras High Courts; no reported stay.

Full practitioner treatment: DPDP Rules, 2025 amendment, PIO reply after DPDP Rules, 2025, DPDP Act vs RTI \u2014 2026 position.

The physical Indian Postal Order is now the legacy route \u2014 retained for offline filings and for applicants without digital access. In 2026, digital payment is the default on every major portal. Two payment rails do most of the work.

At rtionline.gov.in the integrated payment flow exposes UPI as the first option:

1. Submit the application details and reach the payment screen.
2. Select UPI as the mode. A QR code and a VPA field appear.
3. Either scan the QR in BHIM, Google Pay, PhonePe, Paytm, or any UPI app; or enter your VPA (e.g. yourname@upi).
4. Verify the amount is Rs 10 and the merchant is typically “Department of Personnel & Training, PAO” or a similar Government Pay-and-Accounts Office handle.
5. Confirm the payment in the UPI app. The portal auto-generates the registration number on return.

Where State Governments have moved RTI fees on to the e-GRAS or specialized treasury portals, the BBPS biller directory is the alternative route:

1. On the payment screen, select Bharat BillPay.
2. In your bank's mobile app, open Bill Pay and search under the biller category for the State's RTI Fee or Government Services head.
3. Enter the reference number issued by the State portal. Confirm the amount.
4. Return to the State portal with the UTR number if required.

Save the Digital Transaction ID (UTR) and the portal's Acknowledgement ID the moment they are generated. If the portal fails to generate a registration number but the payment is debited, the UTR is the only trail for reconciliation. Screen-capture the confirmation before you close the browser tab.

For the full portal walk-through see Navigating rtionline.gov.in. For the broader 2026 filing playbook see How to File RTI Online in India \u2014 2026 step-by-step.

On the ground, the single change most applicants notice in 2026 is that Section 8(1)(j) refusals are more common on third-party personal data requests. The shield is tighter \u2014 but it is not a blanket ban. Three drafting rules turn a dead-on-arrival RTI into a live appeal.

Do not ask for a person's personal attribute. Ask for a public function the person performed. The record of that function, even if it names the person, is tied to public activity, and therefore outside the narrow 8(1)(j) shield.

• Weak. “Personal details of Officer X.”
• Strong. “Records generated in the performance of official duties by the officer holding charge of [position] in [department] between [date] and [date].”

Do not wait for appeal. State the public interest in one line, in the application:

• “If any portion of the record is considered exempt under Section 8(1), I rely on Section 8(2) of the Right to Information Act, 2005 \u2014 the public interest in disclosure of [name the specific public interest] outweighs the harm to protected interests.”

See Public interest under RTI for the doctrine and DPDP vs RTI \u2014 2026 position for the current application.

Where the record genuinely contains personal data of third parties, put the severance request in the application itself:

• “If any part of the record contains personal identifiers (names, contact numbers, addresses) of third parties, I request redacted disclosure of the non-exempt portion under Section 10.”

Section 10 severance is the Commission's preferred remedy in 2026 CIC orders. Rule C moves the PIO into severance mode instead of blanket refusal.

Copy-paste templates for the twelve most-filed subjects are at the RTI Query Builder. The five drafting mistakes that still cause most refusals are at Why RTI Applications Get Rejected.

The definition of “information” under Section 2(f) of the RTI Act is open-ended: “any material in any form” including records, documents, memos, e-mails, opinions, advices, press releases, circulars, orders, log books, contracts, reports, samples, models, and data held in any electronic form.

In 2026, that open definition squarely covers digital communications of public officials on official business:

• Official email correspondence. E-mails on Government e-mail IDs are records held by the public authority. RTIs for specific threads, subject-lines, or cc-distribution lists have been routinely sustained by Information Commissions.
• Official messaging on personal devices. Where a public official uses a personal device (including WhatsApp, Signal, or similar) for official Government business, those communications are records of the public authority regardless of the device on which they sit. The principle follows from Section 2(f) read with Section 2(i) (definition of “record” includes any document, manuscript, and file). This is reported as the consistent line across Delhi and Madras High Court orders in 2024-2025, though the precise docket numbers vary by matter.
• Metadata and digital logs. Access logs, timestamps, transmission metadata, and digital signatures are information where they pertain to the substantive matter \u2014 who approved what, when, and through which channel. See File notings and What is information.

The practitioner point: when requesting digital records, name the channel (Government e-mail, Cabinet secretariat WhatsApp group, eSanchar) and the time range as precisely as you would for a paper file. Generic “all emails on topic X” requests attract Section 7(9) disproportionate-diversion refusals.

The analytical anchor remains //K.S. Puttaswamy v. Union of India//, (2017) 10 SCC 1 \u2014 the nine-judge Constitution Bench that recognised privacy as a fundamental right under Article 21. Every digital-records RTI in 2026 is balanced against the Puttaswamy proportionality test. The //Electoral Bonds// judgment (2024) reaffirms that the right to know is itself Article 19(1)(a) fundamental \u2014 a two-sided constitutional balance.

For the curated list of post-2021 jurisprudence see Landmark rulings, 2021 to 2026.

The table below lists the operational status of RTI portals across States and Union Territories as of 20 April 2026. Portal features and fee structures are changed by State notification from time to time \u2014 always verify the current position on the State Government's e-Gazette before relying on any figure.

If your State's RTI portal is not listed above or has moved, the safe fall-back is to file in person at the PIO's counter at the concerned public authority with Rs 10 in cash or Indian Postal Order. The State Public Information Officer is obliged to accept the application and issue an acknowledgement under Section 6(1).

For which jurisdiction applies to your question, see State RTI vs Central RTI.

• The RTI Act, 2005 \u2014 current text.
• RTI Act summary, sections, and notes.
• Commissioner tenure and salaries post-2019.
• Landmark rulings, 2021 to 2026.
• FAQ \u2014 twenty-five most-asked questions.
• File RTI Online in India \u2014 2026 step-by-step.
• Why RTI Applications Get Rejected.
• RTI Query Builder.
• Navigating rtionline.gov.in.
• State RTI vs Central RTI.
• Public interest under RTI \u2014 updated April 2026.
• Privacy under RTI.
• Severability \u2014 Section 10.
• DPDP Rules, 2025 amendment.
• DPDP Act vs RTI \u2014 2026 position.
• PIO reply after DPDP Rules, 2025.
• A decade of change, 2015 to 2025.
• Economic Survey 2025-26 RTI re-examination.
• Case law library.
• RTI Rules \u2014 Central, State, and Commission.
• Templates \u2014 first RTI, appeals, PIO replies.
• Contribute to RTI Wiki.

1. The Right to Information Act, 2005 (No. 22 of 2005).
2. The Right to Information (Amendment) Act, 2019 (No. 24 of 2019).
3. The Right to Information (Term of Office, Salaries, Allowances…) Rules, 2019.
4. The Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 (No. 22 of 2023), Section 44(3).
5. The Digital Personal Data Protection Rules, 2025, notified 14 November 2025.
6. Constitution of India, Articles 19(1)(a) and 21.
7. Justice K.S. Puttaswamy v. Union of India, (2017) 10 SCC 1.
8. Association for Democratic Reforms v. Union of India (Electoral Bonds), Supreme Court, 15 February 2024.
9. Central Board of Secondary Education v. Aditya Bandopadhyay, (2011) 8 SCC 497.
10. Department of Personnel and Training, Annual Report on the Right to Information Act.
11. Reserve Bank of India, circulars on UPI and Bharat BillPay operations.
12. State portal statuses and fee structures are verified from the concerned State Government portals as of the Last Reviewed date below and are subject to change by State notification.

Last reviewed on: 20 April 2026 — RTI Wiki editorial team. Last reviewed: 24 April 2026.