Ramesh works as a Section Officer in a Central ministry. For three years in a row his promotion has been “deferred”. No one tells him why. The seniority list moves, his name stays put, and the file note that explains the freeze is locked inside a brown folder he has never seen — his Annual Confidential Report, or ACR (now called APAR, Annual Performance Assessment Report). One day a helpful clerk whispers: “Sir, your 2022-23 grading is 'Good', but the benchmark for the next grade is 'Very Good'.” Ramesh never received that grading. He never got a chance to write a representation against it. He did not even know the mark existed.
This is the single most common, and most easily fixed, injustice in government service. The Supreme Court has said, more than once, that every entry in your ACR/APAR must be told to you — not just the ones your office labels “adverse”. A “Good” is adverse in effect when the benchmark for promotion is “Very Good”. And if the entry was never communicated to you, it cannot legally be used to deny you a promotion. The RTI Act is the tool that gets that hidden entry into your hands.
This guide walks you through, step by step, how to use RTI to pull out your own ACR/APAR, force disclosure of the grading, track your representation, and build the paper trail you need if you later challenge a denied promotion. For the wider strategy of drafting RTIs and escalating silence, see The RTI Playbook.
Direct answer. File the RTI application to the Public Information Officer of your own department (the Reviewing Authority or Accepting Authority office holds the signed APAR). Ask for a certified copy of your APAR for the last five years, the disposal of any representation you filed, and the reason your grading was held below benchmark. The Central Government fee is Rs.10.
Two Supreme Court judgments make communication of your ACR/APAR entries a legal duty, not a courtesy.
Dev Dutt v. Union of India, (2008) 8 SCC 725 — decided by a two-Judge Bench (Sema and Katju JJ) on 12 May 2008. The Court held that every entry in an ACR — whether it reads “poor”, “fair”, “average”, “good”, or “very good” — must be communicated to the employee within a reasonable time. Non-communication violates Article 14 (the right to equality) because an employee cannot defend or explain a grading they have never seen. The Court made one narrow exception: this rule does not apply to military personnel. Every other State employee is covered. The nomenclature of the grade does not matter; what matters is the effect. A “Good” is adverse in effect when the promotion benchmark is “Very Good”, and it must be communicated just the same.
Sukhdev Singh v. Union of India, (2013) 9 SCC 566 / AIR 2013 SC 2741 — a three-Judge Bench of the Supreme Court (Lodha, Lokur and Kurian Joseph JJ, 23 April 2013). The Bench examined Dev Dutt in detail, approved and affirmed it, and held that every ACR entry must be communicated, and the employee's representation must be decided by a higher authority within a reasonable time. The Court went further: it declared earlier decisions that said otherwise to be “not laying down good law”. So there is no longer any room for the old argument that “only adverse remarks need be communicated”.
These two rulings are your foundation. When your office says “we only share adverse entries”, quote Dev Dutt and Sukhdev Singh.
For Central civilian employees, the disclosure regime is built out of a series of DoPT Office Memorandums (OMs) — there is no single instrument called “ACR Rules 2011”. The three you will cite most often are:
For All India Services (IAS, IPS, IFoS), the parallel instrument is the AIS (PAR) Rules 2007. The principle is the same: disclose, then decide.
Knowing the timeline tells you exactly when to file your RTI. The DoPT calendar for a reporting year runs like this:
| Stage | Deadline |
|---|---|
| Blank APAR form issued | 31 March |
| Self-appraisal submitted | 15 April |
| Reporting Officer records remarks | 30 June |
| Reviewing Officer records remarks | 31 July |
| Accepting Authority records remarks | 31 August |
| Disclosure to the officer (no accepting authority) | 1 September |
| Disclosure to the officer (with accepting authority) | 15 September |
| Representation period (from receipt) | 15 days |
| Disposal of representation | 30 days |
| Communication of decision | 15 days |
| Entire APAR process closed | 30 November |
So if 15 September has passed and you have not been shown your APAR, the system has already breached the timeline. That is the moment to file your RTI.
Where to file. Address the application to the Public Information Officer of your own department (the office of the Reviewing Authority or Accepting Authority, because that is where the signed APAR physically sits). Central ministries each have a designated Central Public Information Officer (CPIO).
Fee. For Central Government public authorities the application fee is Rs.10, fixed by the Central RTI Rules 2012, Rule 3(1), and unchanged since 2005. You can pay by Indian Postal Order, demand draft, cash against receipt, or online (most ministries now accept payment through the RTI Online portal). If you hold a valid BPL certificate, the fee is waived — see how to claim the BPL RTI fee waiver.
Important. The Rs.10 figure is for Central public authorities only. Many States charge a different amount — for example, Gujarat charges Rs.20. If you are a State government employee, check your own State's RTI Rules first; the State-wise RTI fees list shows the current figure for each State.
A ready-to-use template.
To, The Central Public Information Officer, [Name of your Ministry / Department], [Address] Subject: Application under Section 6(1) of the Right to Information Act, 2005 Sir/Madam, Please furnish the following information relating to me, [Your Name], [Designation], [Employee ID], [Office]: 1. A certified copy of my APAR / ACR for the financial years [YYYY-YYYY] to [YYYY-YYYY], including the overall grading, the integrity assessment, and the remarks of the Reporting Officer, Reviewing Officer and Accepting Authority. 2. A certified copy of the order or note by which my grading for [YYYY-YYYY] was fixed at "[grade]", and the benchmark prescribed for promotion to [next grade] for that year. 3. The status and disposal of the representation I submitted on [date] against the said grading, including a copy of the speaking order passed under DoPT OM dated 19.05.2011. 4. The date on which my APAR for [YYYY-YYYY] was disclosed to me under DoPT OM dated 14.05.2009, and the mode of disclosure. I am enclosing Rs.10 as application fee by [IPO / online receipt / DD]. Date: Place: [Your signature] [Contact details]
Print it, sign it, keep a stamped acknowledged copy, and keep the postal receipt or online reference number. That acknowledged copy is your proof of filing.
The RTI Act gives you a clean escalation ladder.
30 days is the limit. The CPIO must reply within 30 days of receiving your application. If the answer is incomplete, evasive, or simply does not arrive, you move to the first appeal under Section 19(1) — filed with the departmental First Appellate Authority within 30 days of the CPIO's silence or reply. See how to file a first appeal under Section 19 for the format and the FAA timeline.
Second appeal. If the FAA also fails, you go to the Central Information Commission (for Central employees) or the State Information Commission (for State employees) under Section 19(3). This is a written, quasi-judicial hearing. The full procedure is in filing a second appeal before the CIC/SIC.
Once the RTI brings your APAR into your hands, three things open up.
A. File a representation within 15 days. The moment you are shown a below-benchmark entry, the 15-day clock for a representation starts. Use plain language: state what fact the Reporting Officer got wrong, attach any proof (your tour notes, the file you processed, the appreciation letter), and ask for the grading to be upgraded to the benchmark. Cite Dev Dutt and Sukhdev Singh — they oblige the authority to decide within 30 days and to give speaking reasons.
B. Demand the disposal. If 30 days pass with no order, file a fresh RTI asking for “the status and disposal of my representation dated [date]”. The 19 May 2011 OM requires objective, reasoned disposal. Silence is itself actionable.
C. Challenge a promotion denial built on an uncommunicated entry. This is where most employees win. If your name was withheld from a DPC because of a grading you were never shown, that grading is legally unusable — Dev Dutt says so, in terms. You can challenge the promotion denial before the Central Administrative Tribunal (or the State tribunal / High Court, as the case may be), armed with your RTI reply as proof that the entry was never communicated. Pair this with a RTI for DPC minutes to see exactly what the DPC recorded about you.
Your APAR does not sit alone. A denied promotion is usually a chain of files, and you can pull each link by RTI:
For a stronger overall application, read how to write an effective RTI application before you file.
Last reviewed: 4 July 2026.