RTI for PAN Card Status in Assam

If you applied for a PAN card from anywhere in Assam — Guwahati, Dibrugarh, Jorhat, Silchar, Tezpur, or a tea-garden town in upper Assam — and your application has been stuck for months at NSDL, UTIITSL or the Income Tax Department, the Right to Information Act 2005 is one of the cleanest legal tools you have to force a written, dated answer. This guide is written specifically for the Assam applicant: it tells you the exact office to address, the fee, the online and postal route, the appeal ladder, and the questions that actually work. For the full national template, decision tree and case law, see the parent guide at RTI for PAN card status. You can also draft your application in minutes with the AI RTI Drafter.

This is the single most important point on this page, and the place where most Assam applicants go wrong.

A PAN card is not a state government document. The power to allot, print and dispatch a PAN sits with the Income Tax Department, Government of India, working through the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT). The two agencies you see at the counter — Protean (formerly NSDL e-Governance) at https://www.proteantech.in/services/tin/ and UTIITSL at https://www.utiitsl.com/ — are only the front-end service providers authorised by the Income Tax Department to receive and process applications on its behalf. UTIITSL is itself a Government company under Section 2(45) of the Companies Act 2013.

Because CBDT is a Central public authority, three things follow for an Assam resident:

1. The Assam state RTI online portal at https://rtionline.assam.gov.in/ cannot accept your PAN RTI. That portal states on its home page that it accepts applications only “for the Departments/Public Authorities of the Govt. of Assam”. Filing a PAN RTI there will only get it returned.
2. Your Second Appeal, if one is needed, goes to the Central Information Commission (CIC) at https://cic.gov.in/ — not to the Assam Information Commission in Guwahati. The Assam SIC is the correct body only for state-government matters.
3. The fee, the rules and the 30-day reply clock are the Central ones, set under the Right to Information (Regulation of Fee and Cost) Rules, not the Assam state fee schedule.

So “filing an RTI for PAN card status in Assam” really means: you are an Assam resident, filing against a Central public authority, through a Central portal or by post to a Central office. The rest of this page works through exactly how.

Before you write the application, it helps to know who is sitting on your file. The PAN lifecycle in India looks like this:

The Income Tax Department confirms on its official contact page at https://www.incometax.gov.in/iec/foportal/contact-us that “Tax Information Network - NSDL” queries related to PAN and TAN application for issuance/update are handled by the TIN-NSDL helpline +91-20-27218080, available 07:00 to 23:00 hours on all days. For e-filing and Centralized Processing Center queries the toll-free numbers are 1800 103 0025 and 1800 419 0025. The Aaykar Sampark Kendra of the Income Tax Department is reachable at 1800 180 1961. All of these are useful before you escalate to an RTI — many “stuck PAN” cases are resolved by a single phone call that creates a dated grievance reference number, which you can then quote in your RTI.

For an RTI, however, the correct legal addressee is the CPIO, Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), or the CPIO of the specific Income Tax office that is handling your case. The fastest way to identify that office from Assam is the “Know Your AO” service on https://www.incometax.gov.in/, which returns the jurisdictional Assessing Officer for a given PAN or address.

You have three workable routes from anywhere in Assam.

Route 1 — Online, through the Central RTI portal. Go to https://rtionline.gov.in/, the portal run by the Department of Personnel & Training, Government of India. It explicitly allows Indian citizens to file RTI applications and first appeals “for all Ministries/Departments and other Public Authorities of Central Government”, which includes CBDT and the Income Tax Department. You register with a mobile number, select Ministry of Finance → Department of Revenue → Central Board of Direct Taxes (or the specific Income Tax office), paste your application, upload supporting documents, and pay the Rs. 10 fee through the integrated gateway. The portal's help desk is 011-24010690 / 011-24010691 (09:00 to 17:30, Monday to Friday) and the email is [email protected].

Route 2 — By Speed Post to the CPIO. Address the envelope to the Central Public Information Officer, CBDT / Jurisdictional Income Tax office, mark it “RTI Application under Section 6(1)” on the top, and send it by India Post Speed Post from any Assam post office. Keep the Speed Post tracking slip — it is your proof of the date of receipt, which starts the 30-day clock.

Route 3 — Hand delivery at the Income Tax office. For applicants in and around Guwahati, the Income Tax Department's North Eastern Region offices administer PAN and direct-tax matters for Assam. You can hand-deliver a paper RTI at the receipt counter and insist on a stamped acknowledgment copy. The Assam state capital complex at Dispur and the older Income Tax buildings in Guwahati handle such deliveries on working days.

For your reference, here is the routing cheat-sheet for an Assam PAN applicant:

Because the addressee is a Central public authority, the Central RTI fee applies, not the Assam state fee.

The online gateway on https://rtionline.gov.in/ accepts internet banking, debit and credit cards of Master/Visa, RuPay cards, and UPI. For Assam applicants who do not have net banking, the IPO route is the safest — you can buy a Rs. 10 Indian Postal Order at any post office in Assam, cross it in favour of the “Accounts Officer, CBDT” or the relevant Income Tax office, and attach it to the printed application.

BPL applicants — and many tea-garden workers and small farmers in rural Assam fall in this category — pay nothing, but must attach a clear copy of the BPL proof. Without that proof the application is treated as fee-unpaid and can be returned.

1. Step 1 — Gather your identifiers. Note down your 15-digit PAN acknowledgement number (NSDL format like “881031234567890” or UTIITSL coupon number), the date of application, the documents you submitted, and the registered mobile number. Without the acknowledgement number the CPIO cannot trace your file.
2. Step 2 — Find your Assessing Officer. Use “Know Your AO” on https://www.incometax.gov.in/ by entering your PAN (if already partly allotted) or your Assam address. This is the office most likely to be holding your file.
3. Step 3 — Draft the application. Use the template in the sample section below, or build one with the AI RTI Drafter. Keep it to one page. Ask specific, dated questions — vague applications get vague replies.
4. Step 4 — Pay the Rs. 10 fee. Online via the gateway, or by IPO favouring the Accounts Officer of the public authority. BPL applicants attach proof and pay nothing.
5. Step 5 — Submit. Online through https://rtionline.gov.in/ is fastest — you immediately get a registration number. By post, use Speed Post and keep the slip with the tracking ID and posting date.
6. Step 6 — Start the 30-day clock. The clock runs from the date the application is received by the public authority, not the date you posted it. Online, this is the registration date; by Speed Post, it is the delivery date shown in the India Post tracking.
7. Step 7 — Track. On the central portal, “View Status” shows whether the application is pending, replied, or transferred under Section 6(3). Use the RTI Timeline Calculator to know the exact day your reply is due and the day your First Appeal window opens.

The RTI Act gives you the right to information, not the right to demand a service. So instead of “please issue my PAN card”, you ask for factual status information. These five questions almost always get a reply:

1. What is the current status of my PAN application bearing acknowledgement number , filed on ?
2. On what specific date was my application forwarded by NSDL/UTIITSL to the Income Tax Department for verification, and to which office?
3. If the application is marked for discrepancy, what is the exact discrepancy, and what is the date on which the discrepancy was raised?
4. By what date, under the Citizen's Charter of the Income Tax Department, should a PAN application be processed and the PAN dispatched?
5. The names, designations and office addresses of the officials currently handling my application.

That last question — naming the officials — is powerful because it makes Section 20 penalty exposure personal to the officer dealing with your file.

If 30 days pass with no reply — or you get a reply that is evasive, partial, or wrong — you have the right to a First Appeal under Section 19(1) of the RTI Act. The appeal goes to the First Appellate Authority (FAA), an officer senior in rank to the CPIO in the same public authority.

The Central portal has integrated first-appeal filing, so you simply enter your original RTI registration number and the system pulls the linked details. For Assam applicants filing on paper, address the appeal to “The First Appellate Authority, CBDT / jurisdictional Income Tax office” and attach a copy of the original application and the (non-)reply.

If the FAA also fails you, use the First Appeal Drafter to assemble a clean, dated document for the next stage.

This is the second most-misunderstood point on this page. For a PAN matter, your Second Appeal under Section 19(3) goes to the Central Information Commission (CIC) — the national body at https://cic.gov.in/ — not to the Assam State Information Commission.

Why? Because the CIC hears second appeals against Central public authorities (like CBDT), while each State Information Commission hears only second appeals against state public authorities. Mixing them up is the most common reason a Second Appeal gets returned as “not maintainable”.

The CIC portal, since its integration with the DoPT RTI Online portal, lets you file a Second Appeal by entering the First Appeal Registration Number, your email ID and the date you filed the First Appeal; the system auto-retrieves the underlying RTI application and the first appeal. For Assam appellants this is a real cost saving — hearings are typically conducted over video conference, so you do not have to travel to New Delhi.

The Assam Information Commission at sic.assam.gov.in, located at Jonakee Complex, Shilpagram Road, Panjabari, Guwahati-781037 and established on 2 March 2006, is the correct body only if your RTI is against an Assam state department (for example, an Assam state PWD file or an Assam revenue document) — never for a PAN matter.

1. Wrong addressee. Addressing the application to the Assam State PIO, the district administration, or “the PAN office” without naming CBDT — the application gets bounced. Always name CBDT / the Income Tax Department.
2. Fee unpaid or wrongly paid. Filing on the central portal without completing the Rs. 10 payment, or sending an IPO favouring the wrong office. Always favour the “Accounts Officer” of the public authority you are addressing.
3. Vague questions. Asking “why is my PAN delayed” without giving the acknowledgement number and dates — the CPIO can lawfully say the information cannot be located.
4. Seeking a service, not information. Demanding “issue my PAN immediately” is outside RTI scope. Frame every question as a request for factual information.
5. Third-party / privacy shield. Asking for someone else's PAN details will hit Section 8(1)(j). RTI is for your own application status.
6. No proof of posting. Without a Speed Post slip or a portal registration number you cannot prove the 30-day clock ever started.

Before you send, run your draft through the PIO Reply Checker to spot these failure modes.

An RTI is rarely your only lever. Filing these in parallel — and quoting their reference numbers inside your RTI — makes the file move much faster.

1. CPGRAMS at https://pgportal.gov.in/ — the Centralized Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System. File a grievance against the Income Tax Department / CBDT for the delayed PAN. You get a unique grievance number; quote it in your RTI.
2. Aaykar Sampark Kendra at 1800 180 1961 — the Income Tax Department's toll-free helpline. Log a call, note the complaint reference number and the date.
3. TIN-NSDL helpline at +91-20-27218080 (07:00 to 23:00, all days) — for queries on PAN/TAN applications submitted through NSDL.
4. UTIITSL grievance through https://www.utiitsl.com/ — for applications routed via UTIITSL.
5. Awaaz RTI — the Awaaz RTI tool helps you keep all these reference numbers, dates and deadlines in one place so nothing slips.

A realistic sequence for an Assam applicant with a stuck PAN: register a CPGRAMS complaint on Day 1, call Aaykar Sampark Kendra on Day 2, file the RTI on Day 3 quoting both reference numbers. By Day 20 you usually have either the PAN or a written reason for the delay.

Rina, a small tea-trader from Dibrugarh, applied for a PAN correction through an NSDL TIN-FC in Guwahati in early 2025. For four months the online status showed “under processing at Income Tax Department”. She registered a CPGRAMS complaint, called the Aaykar Sampark Kendra (1800 180 1961), and filed an RTI through https://rtionline.gov.in/ addressed to the CPIO, CBDT, asking the five questions listed above and quoting her CPGRAMS number. Within 22 days she received a written reply stating that her application had been held up for biometric Aadhaar authentication and specifying the exact document she needed to submit. She submitted the document at the TIN-FC; the PAN was dispatched within the next fortnight. *(Names and dates changed; this is an illustrative composite, not a single verified case.)*

The lesson is not magical — it is simply that a dated, written RTI forces a named official to give a dated, written answer, which a phone call never does.

To,
The Central Public Information Officer (CPIO),
Central Board of Direct Taxes / Income Tax Department,
[Office address, Guwahati / New Delhi as applicable]

Subject: Application under Section 6(1) of the Right to Information Act, 2005 —
         Status of PAN application bearing acknowledgement No. ___________

Sir/Madam,

I, _____________________, citizen of India, residing at
[full postal address in Assam with PIN], hereby seek the following
information under Section 6(1) read with Section 7(1) of the Right to
Information Act, 2005, relating to my PAN application filed on
[DD/MM/YYYY] through [NSDL/UTIITSL], acknowledgement No. ___________ .

The requisite application fee of Rs. 10 is paid through
[IPO No. __ / online receipt No. __ / attached BPL proof].

Please furnish the following information:

1. The current status of my aforesaid PAN application, and the exact
   stage at which it is presently pending.

2. The date on which the application was forwarded by NSDL/UTIITSL to
   the Income Tax Department for verification, and the designation and
   office address of the officer to whom it was forwarded.

3. If the application is marked for discrepancy or kept pending, the
   exact reason recorded, the date on which it was so marked, and the
   specific document or action required from me to clear it.

4. The prescribed time-limit under the Citizen's Charter of the Income
   Tax Department for processing a PAN application and dispatching the
   PAN card, and whether my application has breached that limit.

5. The names, designations and office addresses of the officials
   currently handling my application.

I request that the information be supplied to me in printed form at
the address given above. As required under Section 7(1), please reply
within 30 days of receipt of this application.

If this information falls outside your jurisdiction, kindly transfer
the application to the correct public authority under Section 6(3)
within five working days and intimate me accordingly.

Date: [DD/MM/YYYY]
Place: [City, Assam]

(Signature)
Name: _____________________
Mobile: ___________________
Email: ____________________
Enclosures: Copy of acknowledgement, fee proof / BPL proof.

When the reply arrives, paste it into the PIO Reply Checker to see whether it actually answers all five questions — and whether you have grounds for a First Appeal.

No. That portal, run by the Administrative Reforms, Training, Pension and Public Grievances Department of the Government of Assam and maintained by the Assam Information Commission, explicitly accepts RTI applications only for the Departments and Public Authorities of the Government of Assam. Because a PAN card is issued by the Central Board of Direct Taxes — a Central public authority — you must use the Central portal at https://rtionline.gov.in/ instead.

Rs. 10, payable by Indian Postal Order, Banker's Cheque, Demand Draft, or through the online payment gateway on https://rtionline.gov.in/ which accepts internet banking, credit/debit cards of Master/Visa, RuPay and UPI. Below Poverty Line applicants pay nothing if they attach valid BPL proof.

No. Because the addressee is a Central public authority (CBDT), the Central RTI Rules on fee and cost apply. The Assam state RTI Rules apply only to RTIs against Assam state departments. For a state-fee overview see RTI fees by state.

30 days from the date your application is received by the public authority, under Section 7(1) of the RTI Act 2005. If your request concerns the life or liberty of a person, the reply is due within 48 hours. Use the RTI Timeline Calculator to mark the exact due date.

With the First Appellate Authority of the CBDT or the jurisdictional Income Tax office, under Section 19(1), within 30 days of the expiry of the reply period or of an unsatisfactory reply. The Central portal at https://rtionline.gov.in/ allows online first-appeal filing linked to your original registration number. Draft it with the First Appeal Drafter.

Online, to the Central Information Commission at https://cic.gov.in/, under Section 19(3), within 90 days. Hearings are usually held by video conference, so an Assam appellant does not need to travel to Delhi. Do not file a PAN second appeal at the Assam Information Commission — it will be returned for want of jurisdiction.

No. Information relating to a third party's PAN attracts the personal-information exemption under Section 8(1)(j) of the RTI Act. RTI is the right tool for the status of your own application, not for prying into another person's tax identity.

Ask exactly when the application was forwarded to the Income Tax Department, which office holds it now, what discrepancy (if any) is recorded, what document is required from you, and by what date under the Citizen's Charter it should have been processed. The five-question template above is built for precisely this situation.

They are the authorised service providers for the Income Tax Department. Address your application to the CPIO, CBDT / Income Tax Department, which then routes the query internally. You can mention the agency you applied through (NSDL or UTIITSL) and quote your acknowledgement number, but the legal addressee remains CBDT.

Your fee is fully waived under the RTI Rules once you attach a copy of your BPL ration card or Antyodaya Anna Yojana certificate. You can file by Speed Post from your nearest post office and avoid the online gateway entirely. Keep the postal slip as your proof.

Only if the matter somehow involved an Assam state public authority alongside CBDT, which is rare for PAN. In the ordinary PAN case the Assam Information Commission at sic.assam.gov.in has no jurisdiction; the Central Information Commission does.

Online filings on https://rtionline.gov.in/ generate a registration number and a date stamp immediately. Postal filings are proved by the Speed Post delivery status on the India Post tracking site — the delivery date is treated as the date of receipt under the RTI Act. Always download and save both.

The Right to Information (Amendment) Act 2019 changed the term and service conditions of the Chief Information Commissioner and Information Commissioners. It did not change your right to seek information, the Rs. 10 fee, the 30-day reply window, or the Sections 6, 7, 19 and 20 protections you rely on for a PAN RTI. Your filing procedure is unchanged.

Verified in this revision cycle:

• Right to Information Act, 2005 — Sections 6(1), 6(3), 7(1), 7(3), 8(1)(j), 19(1), 19(3) and 20; full background and timelines cross-checked at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_to_Information_Act,_2005.
• Central RTI Online portal, Department of Personnel & Training, Government of India — https://rtionline.gov.in/; help desk 011-24010690 / 011-24010691; email [email protected]; payment modes (internet banking, Master/Visa, RuPay, UPI) as stated on the portal home page.
• Assam State RTI Online portal — https://rtionline.assam.gov.in/; an initiative of the Administrative Reforms, Training, Pension and Public Grievances Department, Government of Assam; maintained by the Assam Information Commission; help desk 0361-2337900; email [email protected].
• Assam Information Commission, Guwahati — https://sic.assam.gov.in/ (returns 200; the live site the Assam state RTI portal itself links to for Second Appeals at sic.assam.gov.in/public/second_appeal.jsp); location and establishment date cross-checked via https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assam_Information_Commission.
• Income Tax Department, Government of India — https://www.incometax.gov.in/; “Know Your AO”, “Verify PAN Status”.
• Income Tax Department contact page — https://www.incometax.gov.in/iec/foportal/contact-us: CPC helpline 1800 103 0025 (or) 1800 419 0025; “Tax Information Network - NSDL” helpline +91-20-27218080 (07:00–23:00 hrs, all days), as listed on the page.
• Protean eGov Technologies (formerly NSDL e-Governance) — Tax Information Network service page at https://www.proteantech.in/services/tin/ (returns 200; listed in the site's own sitemap). This is the live successor to the former NSDL e-Governance TIN web presence. Statement that only Protean (NSDL) and UTIITSL are authorised by the Income Tax Department to process PAN applications.
• UTIITSL — https://www.utiitsl.com/; statement that PAN Card issuance/printing is done on behalf of the Income Tax Department of India, CBDT; UTIITSL is a Government company under Section 2(45) of the Companies Act 2013.
• Aaykar Sampark Kendra helpline 1800 180 1961 — Income Tax Department toll-free helpline.
• Centralized Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System (CPGRAMS) — https://pgportal.gov.in/.
• Central Information Commission — https://cic.gov.in/.

Last reviewed: 19 July 2026.