ACR / APAR under RTI — can you get it?

Quick Reply: An ACR/APAR is protected in RTI terms — disclosure to others is barred by §8(1)(j) and the Official Secrets Act, 1923 unless public interest outweighs the harm. But your own grading is a different ask: the Supreme Court in Dev Dutt held ACR entries must be communicated to the employee. The copy-ready request is below.

Last reviewed on: 27 August 2026. Junk template description rebuilt; garbled OM footnote repaired; Dev Dutt (2008) 8 SCC 725 added and verified; copy-ready request and FAQ added.

acr, section-8

Disclosure of Annual Confidential Report under RTI aka Annual Performance Report.

As per the DoPT Office Memorandum No. 10/20/2006-IR, dated 21 September 2007¹⁾ on disclosure of Annual Confidential Reports under the RTI Act 2005, the position is:

Can ACR be disclosed

The public authority is not under obligation to disclose ACRs of any employee to the employee himself or to any other person inasmuch as disclosure of ACRs is protected by clause (j) of sub-section (1) of Section 8 of the RTI Act; and an ACR is a confidential document, disclosure of which is protected by the Official Secrets Act, 1923.

Is there an exception to disclosure of ACR

However, the public authority has the discretion to disclose the Annual Confidential Reports of an employee to the employee himself or to any other person, if the public authority is satisfied that the public interest in disclosure outweighs the harm to the protected interests. If it is felt that public interest in disclosure of the ACR of any employee outweighs the protected interests, decision to disclose the ACRs should be taken with the approval of the competent authority.

Competent authority in the matter may be decided by the concerned public authority.

Your own ACR — the Dev Dutt line

Dev Dutt v. Union of India, (2008) 8 SCC 725 (12 May 2008) — the Supreme Court held that ACR entries must be communicated to the employee: even a “good” grading that costs a promotion (against “very good”) is adverse in effect, and using an uncommunicated entry is arbitrary under Article 14.
In practice: an employee is entitled to know his own grading through the service-law route, and an RTI for the entry and its communication status is routinely answered for the applicant's own record — it is third-party access that the 8(1)(j) + OSA bar addresses.
Full text: Dev Dutt v. Union of India, Indian Kanoon.

The copy-ready RTI (for your own ACR/APAR)

1. The grading awarded to me in my APAR/ACR for the year ______ and the date
   it was communicated to me.
2. If not communicated: the reasons for non-communication, notwithstanding
   the DoPT OM No. 10/20/2006-IR dated 21-09-2007 and Dev Dutt (2008) 8 SCC 725.
3. The composition of the reporting/reviewing authority for that APAR.
4. The status of my representation dated ______ against the grading.

FAQs

Can I get a colleague's or an officer's ACR?

That is third-party access: barred by §8(1)(j) and the Official Secrets Act unless a recorded public interest outweighs it — expect refusal, and a high bar on appeal.

Is APAR different from ACR?

Same idea, newer name — the APAR (Annual Performance Assessment Report) regime replaced the ACR with more transparency by design.

My APAR entry was never shown to me —?

Cite Dev Dutt in your representation first; the RTI then asks for the communication date, which usually surfaces the default.

Discuss this topic

¹⁾

PDF — DoPT OM No. 10/20/2006-IR, 21 September 2007

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