Bihar Information Commission — contact (2026)

• Commission: Bihar Information Commission (the body is often called BSIC in older material).
• Address: 4th Floor, Soochna Bhawan, Nehru Marg, Patna 800015.
• Help desk: 0612-2215713. Fax: 0612-2235466.
• Email: [email protected] (office); [email protected] (second-appeal correspondence).
• Website: sic.bihar.gov.in — the live official site, in Hindi and English, with cause lists, decisions and circulars. The older address bisic.bihar.gov.in no longer resolves; update bookmarks.
• Hearings: the Commission holds video-conference hearings, so a district appellant need not travel to Patna every time.

Use the phone for what it is good at — listing, cause-list queries, correcting procedural defects. For anything that must produce a decision, use paper or the portal.

1. Hears second appeals under §19(3) when a first appeal has failed — the filing window is 90 days from the FAA order, or from the FAA deadline passing.
2. Hears complaints under §18(1): no PIO appointed, application refused, unreasonable fee demands.
3. Can order information supply, compensate the appellant for loss suffered, and impose §20 penalty on the PIO — Rs 250 for each day of delay, up to Rs 25,000 — and recommend disciplinary action.
4. Its jurisdiction covers Bihar state public authorities: departments, district offices, police, panchayats, municipalities, universities, boards and state PSUs. Central offices in Bihar answer to the CIC, not the BSIC.

Bihar runs Jaankari (jaankari.bihar.gov.in, a state call-centre service that takes RTI applications over the phone: call, dictate your questions, and the centre drafts, records the fee and forwards the application to the right PIO. It is built for citizens who cannot easily write or travel, and it produces a registration number like any other filing. Treat it as a filing channel, not a grievance line.

The Commission will ask for the paper trail, so have it ready:

• RTI application copy and fee proof (IPO number, challan or Jaankari receipt).
• The PIO's reply, or a note of the date the 30-day silence matured.
• The first appeal copy and the FAA's order — or the date its 45-day window closed.
• Your registration number, if filed through a portal or Jaankari.

Helplines log complaints; RTI applications compel file notings. A five-question application to the department's PIO, or to the Commission about its own registry, usually moves matters within days:

1. Status of my complaint / appeal no. _____ dated _____ as on today.
2. Name and designation of the officer now holding my file.
3. Reasons for delay beyond the statutory timeline.
4. Copy of the noting or movement of the file in the last 30 days.
5. The likely date of listing and the bench assigned.

Draft it in the AI RTI Drafter; for the bigger picture, the second-appeal guide walks the full ladder.

• Paper: the appeal with enclosures goes to the Commission at Soochna Bhawan — one set for the registry, plus copies as its notice requires; registered post with the receipt kept, or hand delivery against a stamp.
• Contents that decide everything: the four dates — application, reply or silence, first appeal, FAA order or expiry — plus a clear prayer: supply of the information, §20 penalty for the delay, and compensation where the delay cost you something real.
• Listing: the registry checks the 90-day window and the enclosures; defects are returned for cure, not dismissed — cure them fast and re-file.
• Hearing: video-conference attendance is the norm for district appellants; ask for it in the appeal with a working number.

The Commission's site carries registration and cause-list services; where the online appeal module is down, the postal route to Soochna Bhawan with all enclosures is always valid. Keep the speed-post receipt.

Hindi is the working language; English is accepted everywhere.

No — appeals to any Information Commission are free.

That itself is a §18(1) complaint before the Commission — mention the date and mode of your attempt to file.

The CIC in Delhi — railways, income tax, banks and central PSUs answer there even when the office sits in Patna.

Yes — Jaankari is a filing channel: it drafts, records the fee and forwards to the right PIO, returning a registration number like any other route.

• All helplines and grievance routes
• Second appeal — the complete route
• Second appeal format
• All state RTI portals
• The RTI Playbook