Ramesh runs a small IT firm in Pune. For two years he has supplied laptops to a state government department. Then the department called for “empanelment” — a fresh list of approved vendors. Ramesh applied. Six months passed. No reply. When he chased it, a clerk said, “Your file is under review.” He asked why some big firms were empanelled in weeks while his name was missing. The clerk shrugged. Ramesh felt the whole process was a closed box.
This is the box an RTI application opens. Empanelment means a public authority picks a list of vendors it will buy from. The list decides who gets government business. You have a right to know the rules of the game, the names on the list, where your own file stands, and the written reason if you were rejected. This page shows you, step by step, how to get all four.
Direct answer. File your RTI with the Procurement Authority of the department (the office that issued the empanelment notice). Ask for (1) the empanelment criteria, (2) the current empaneled vendor list, (3) the status of your own application, and (4) the written reasons for rejection under section 4(1)(d) of the RTI Act. Fee is Rs 10 for Central government public authorities.
Three rulebooks govern government buying. You do not need to read them fully, but naming them in your application shows you are serious.
On the RTI side, two provisions do the heavy lifting:
Address the application to the Public Information Officer of the Procurement Authority — the office that issued the empanelment notice or runs the panel. For a state department, this is usually the Head of Office or a designated PIO in the procurement cell. For a central ministry, it is the CPIO in the concerned wing. If the empanelment is on GeM, the buyer is the department that floated the bid, not GeM itself; GeM only hosts the process.
Ask five clear questions. Keep each one single-line so the PIO cannot dodge by answering one half and ignoring the other.
Q4 is the one most applicants forget. Without the written reason, you cannot challenge an arbitrary rejection. Section 4(1)(d) gives you a right to that reason in writing.
To: The Public Information Officer [Name of Procurement Authority / Department] [Address] Subject: Application under section 6, RTI Act 2005 — Empanelment of [category] Sir/Madam, I had applied for empanelment under [category] vide application No. [____] dated [____]. Kindly furnish the following information: 1. The complete empanelment criteria and eligibility conditions for [category] as on [date]. 2. The list of vendors empaneled under [category] as on [date], with date of empanelment and validity. 3. The current status of my application No. [____]. 4. The written reasons for rejection / non-empanelment of my application, under section 4(1)(d) of the RTI Act 2005. 5. The date of expiry of the current panel and the date of the next empanelment cycle. I am a person below poverty line / [enclose Rs 10 IPO/cash receipt]. A Rs 10 Indian Postal Order No. [____] is enclosed as the application fee, favouring the Accounts Officer. [Name, address, phone, email]
For Central government public authorities, the fee is Rs 10, payable by cash, Indian Postal Order, demand draft / banker's cheque, or electronic means, in favour of the Accounts Officer of the public authority. (Check your state rules — some states charge Rs 50 or nothing; BPL applicants are exempt on producing the BPL certificate.)
The PIO must reply within 30 days (48 hours if the information concerns life or liberty). If no reply arrives, or the reply is wrong, you move to the next step.
The logic of the ladder is simple: RTI gets you the document, then the appeal fixes the silence, then a court or tribunal fixes the wrong decision.
You can ask for criteria, the empaneled list, your own status, and your rejection reasons. You cannot demand another vendor's bid, financial details, or internal scoring marks that reveal a third party's commercial secrets. Those are exempt under section 8(1)(d) (commercial confidence) and 8(1)(e)/(j) (fiduciary / personal information). See section 8(1)(d) commercial confidence for how this exemption works.
There is one honest limit you should know. The Delhi High Court has held that the RTI Act does not require a public authority to create or compile information it does not already maintain, and that the CIC's job is confined to disclosing information that is held — not to questioning empanelment policy. So if no formal panel list is maintained, the PIO need not generate one for you. Ask for what exists.
If your name was removed, or you hear a firm was “blacklisted”, that list must be out in the open. Lists of blacklisted or debarred contractors and suppliers have to be proactively disclosed under section 4(1)(b) of the RTI Act — including the grounds and the duration of debarment. This is settled by CIC rulings on blacklisted companies. See CIC — blacklisted companies must be disclosed and the analogous CIC — Ayushman Bharat empanelment list is disclosable (hospital empanelment lists work the same way as vendor empanelment lists). GFR Rule 151's three grades of debarment give you the vocabulary to ask: was it a holiday listing (up to 12 months), removal from the registered list (1 to 2 years), or a country-wide ban (up to 3 years)?
These are two distinct routes. GeM is the central e-marketplace — registration is online via mkp.gem.gov.in with Aadhaar/PAN/bank checks, and the buyer is the department that floats the bid on GeM. Departmental empanelment is a panel maintained by a specific office under its own criteria (often for services GeM does not cover). An RTI for a GeM-related query goes to the buyer department's PIO, not to GeM. An RTI for a departmental panel goes to that department's PIO. Same Act, different addressee.
If this guide helped you draft your empanelment RTI, the RTI Playbook walks you through the full filing-to-appeal journey with ready-to-use templates. RTI Wiki is a free, volunteer-run resource — if it saved you a fee or a wasted trip, consider a small donation to keep the guides open for everyone.
Last reviewed: 3 July 2026.