Telangana State Information Commission — contact, appeals

• Phone: 040-23222799
• Address: 8-2-120/86/2/A1, Road No 1, Banjara Hills, Hyderabad 500034
• Hours: Mon-Fri 10am-5pm
• Portal: tgic.telangana.gov.in — the Commission's current site, with online filing, cause lists, notices and full-text decisions

The Commission is the second-appellate body for RTI in Telangana: if a Public Information Officer's reply is wrong, incomplete or absent, and the first appeal inside the department has also failed, the second appeal lands here under Section 19(2) of the RTI Act, 2005. As a quasi-judicial body it can order disclosure, and it can penalise a PIO under Section 20 — ₹250 for each day of delay, up to ₹25,000 — and recommend disciplinary action. It also hears complaints under Section 18 where no appeal route fits.

• Deadline: within 90 days of the first-appeal decision, or of the date it should have arrived — “reasonable cause” explained in the appeal can cover a later filing.
• Where: through the TGIC portal, which registers appeals and complaints online and lets you check status by registration number and year, or by post to the Banjara Hills address above. The portal's own appeal form shows the current format and any fee prescribed.
• Attach: the original application copy, the PIO's reply, the first-appeal filing and decision, and a short statement of grounds. Telugu, English and Hindi are all workable.
• Track it: the portal's status search plus its published cause lists tell you whether your case is listed and before which Information Commissioner.

Telangana has had its own Information Commission since the state's formation in 2014. If your public authority sits in Hyderabad or anywhere in Telangana, your second appeal belongs here — not with the Andhra Pradesh commission, and vice versa for AP authorities. Cross-filed appeals die on maintainability, so check the public authority's state first. For the fee schedule and format, see the Telangana pages on this site: Telangana RTI fees and Telangana RTI rules.

Have your registration number and year at hand, and ask two things: whether your file is complete on the registry's record, and the next listing date. The portal's status search answers the first without a call — use it before dialling.

Helplines often log a complaint without solving it. RTI gives you the file noting + officer name + actual reasoning, and most stuck cases clear within 7-15 days.

1. Status of my second appeal / complaint no. _____ dated _____ as on date.
2. Name + designation of the registrar or officer assigned to my file.
3. Reasons for delay beyond the statutory timeline.
4. Copy of any noting / movement of my file in the past 30 days.
5. Likely date of hearing / decision.

Auto-fill the PIO + your case: Open the RTI Drafter →

Your appeal is registered and numbered, and the Commission's registry screens it for completeness — a missing first-appeal copy is the commonest cause of an early return. Once listed, notice of the hearing goes to you and the PIO; the TGIC portal publishes cause lists and the notices issued, so you can confirm your date without calling. Many matters are decided on written submissions; attend only if you want to argue orally. At the hearing, the Commissioner usually asks the PIO two questions: why was the information withheld, and under which section? A PIO who cannot answer both precisely usually loses. The order follows in writing, and a direction to disclose binds the department.

A second appeal under Section 19 needs the application-reply-first-appeal chain behind it. A complaint under Section 18 fits when there is no reply worth appealing — the PIO never responded, demanded an unlawful fee, or refused to accept the application. The remedies differ: an appeal can get you the information with directions; a complaint gets the Commission's inquiry and, where warranted, penalty under Section 20 — ₹250 a day of delay, capped at ₹25,000, plus possible disciplinary action.

Quote your registration number and year — the portal's status search works on exactly those two fields — and keep every notice the Commission sends. The registry answers specific files quickly and vague ones never.

• All 30 helplines + grievance routes
• Telangana RTI fee schedule
• AI RTI Drafter — auto-fills PIO
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• Full RTI Playbook · The RTI Playbook book