How to file an RTI for scholarship status in Assam

This page is the state-specific Assam playbook for chasing a stuck scholarship. For the full India-wide template, decision tree, and case law, read the parent guide RTI for scholarship status — then come back here for the Assam-only facts: which Assam directorate holds your file, the Assam RTI fee rules, the live online portal, and the SIC escalation route.

The biggest reason RTIs in Assam get rejected is they go to the wrong directorate. Scholarship money in Assam moves through several parallel pipelines, each with its own SPIO. Pick the wrong one and your 30-day clock never starts.

Rule of thumb: if the money is supposed to come from a state scheme (Combined Merit, NEC, SC-OBC state award), file at the state directorate. If it is supposed to come through NSP or a central ministry, the disbursing public authority is the central ministry but the verification file sits with the state directorate — you can RTI either side, but the state directorate's SPIO usually has the actionable “why is my verification stuck” answer. See state portals directory and the cross-state matrix at scholarship status RTI across all states.

For detailed reading on what each section of the Act does, see the RTI Act 2005 and landmark RTI cases.

Assam fixes its RTI fee under the Assam Right to Information (Regulation of Fee and Cost) Rules, 2005, published by the Government of Assam Administrative Reforms Department. The rules set a flat Rs. 10 application fee payable in several modes.

A practical note: when you file by Speed Post, an Indian Postal Order of Rs. 10 crossed and favouring the public authority is the cleanest mode — Indian Postal Order is an accepted mode under the Assam RTI Rules, and the receipt is built into the IPO counterfoil. Compare with other states at RTI fees by state.

Yes, Assam has a live online RTI portal: https://rtionline.assam.gov.in/. It is run by the Administrative Reforms, Training, Pension and Public Grievances Department, Government of Assam and maintained by the Assam Information Commission with NIC, so it is the genuine state-level gateway — not a third-party site.

As of the time of writing, the portal shows 1,124 public authorities registered, 1,121 State Public Information Officers (SPIOs) and 608 First Appellate Authorities (FAAs) onboard. Through it a citizen can:

• File a New RTI Request against any registered Assam public authority.
• File a First Appeal Request under §19(1) when the SPIO has not replied.
• File a Second Appeal Request under §19(3) to the Assam Information Commission.
• View Request Status and pay the Rs. 10 fee plus any additional supply fee through net banking.

The portal helpline is 0361-2337900, reachable during working hours 09:30 to 18:00 on working days, and email queries go to help-desk[dot]rtionline[at]assam[dot]gov[dot]in. Only Indian citizens can use it, and it covers only state government departments and state public authorities — for central ministries (UGC, AICTE, Ministry of Minority Affairs for NSP itself) you still use the central portal at the central portal link or https://rtionline.gov.in.

If the portal is down or your public authority is not registered, fall back to Speed Post to the SPIO's office — Assam is not postal-only, but postal filing is still a fully valid alternative under the rules.

1. Find your application number first. For NSP schemes, log in to https://scholarships.gov.in/ and copy your Application ID and the academic year. For state Combined Merit or NEC, keep the acknowledgement the college gave you. Without an application number the SPIO will ask for it and the clock restarts.
2. Identify the public authority. Use the table above. If you applied for NSP SC/OBC, the file sits at Directorate of SC & BC Welfare, Dispur; for Combined Merit it sits at Directorate of Higher Education, Kahilipara; for NEC it sits at Directorate of Technical Education.
3. Pay the Rs. 10 fee. Online through rtionline.assam.gov.in (net banking) or by IPO / demand draft favouring the Authorised Officer of that directorate.
4. Submit the application. Use the AI RTI Drafter to generate the body, then either upload it through the portal or post it by Speed Post to the SPIO's office address with “RTI Application under §6(1)” written on the envelope.
5. Save the proof. Portal gives you a registration / reference number; Speed Post gives you a tracking number. Paste both into the RTI timeline calculator to get exact deadlines.
6. Wait 30 days (§7(1)). The SPIO must reply within 30 days of receiving your application. If the application went through an Assistant PIO, an extra 5 days is added for forwarding.
7. If life or liberty is involved — for a scholarship that is normally not the case — the window collapses to 48 hours under §7(1) proviso.

Use the PIO reply checker when the reply arrives to see whether the SPIO has actually answered each question or just sent a boilerplate response.

The Right to Information Act rewards specific, answerable questions. Five sharp questions almost always unblock a stuck Assam scholarship:

1. Has my scholarship application No. [application id] for academic year [year] under scheme [scheme name] been received at the directorate, and on what date?
2. What is the current verification status — pending at institute, district, or directorate level — and the exact reason for any delay?
3. Has the sanction order been issued in my name; if yes, give the sanction number, date, and sanctioned amount.
4. Has the PFMS / DBT payment been initiated; if yes, give the UTR / PFMS transaction number, date, and the credited bank account; if not, give the expected date of disbursement.
5. If my application has been rejected, give the grounds of rejection, the officer who rejected it, and the speaking order passed.

Avoid opinion questions (“why is the Assam government so slow?”) and avoid asking for advice — the SPIO supplies records, not opinions. See worked examples at how to file RTI and the Assam rules primer at Assam RTI rules.

To,
The State Public Information Officer (SPIO)
Directorate of Higher Education, Government of Assam       [or DSCBC Welfare / DTE]
Kahilipara, Guwahati - 781019, Assam

Subject: Application under section 6(1) of the Right to Information Act, 2005 —
         status of Combined Merit Scholarship (Degree) for AY 2024-25.

Sir/Madam,

I, [Your Name], citizen of India, hereby request the following information
under section 6(1) of the RTI Act, 2005. The requisite application fee of
Rs. 10 is paid through Indian Postal Order No. [IPO number] dated [date]
drawn in favour of the Authorised Officer of this directorate. I require
the information by post / email at the address given below.

Particulars of information required:

1. The present status of my scholarship application bearing NSP / state
   application ID [xxxxxxx] for the Combined Merit Scholarship (Degree),
   academic year 2024-25, including the date on which the application
   was received at this directorate.

2. A certified copy of the verification note or remark recorded by the
   scrutiny branch on my application, with the name and designation of
   the officer who last handled the file.

3. Whether a sanction order has been issued in my favour; if yes, the
   sanction order number, date, and the sanctioned amount.

4. Whether the PFMS / DBT credit has been initiated in my bank account
   [account number]; if yes, the UTR / PFMS transaction number and date;
   if not, the reasons for the delay and the expected date of payment.

5. The total number of Combined Merit Scholarship (Degree) applications
   pending disbursement for AY 2024-25 as on the date of this request.

The information is sought as a matter of right under section 7(1) of the
RTI Act, 2005. If this application is transferable to another public
authority under section 6(3), kindly transfer it within five days and
inform me.

Date: [DD/MM/YYYY]                                       [Your signature]
Place: [City]
Name: [Your full name]
Address: [Postal address with PIN]
Email / Mobile: [details]

For a fully drafted, state-tuned version use the AI RTI Drafter; for the First Appeal draft use First Appeal Drafter; and if you need somebody to make the phone call for you, see Awaaz RTI.

Run the dates through the RTI timeline calculator so you do not miss the 30-day and 90-day windows — they are strict.

The Assam Information Commission (also called the State Information Commission, Assam) is the second-appellate body for every Assam RTI matter. Its official details are:

Second appeals to the Commission can also be filed online through the same rtionline.assam.gov.in portal — pick “Second Appeal Request” and select “Complaint & Second Appeal to AIC”. The Commission can penalise a SPIO up to Rs. 25,000 under §20(1) for unreasonable denial and recommend departmental action under §20(2). Realistically, Assam's Commission has carried a pendency backlog, so a parallel grievance on pgportal.gov.in plus a status email to the Registrar often speeds things up.

Browse the broader directory at state RTI portals directory.

*The following is a composite based on typical Assam queries. Specific amounts are illustrative.*

Rina, a B.Sc. second-year student from a college in Nagaon, applied for the NSP Post-Matric SC scholarship for the 2024-25 cycle through scholarships.gov.in. Her institute verified the form in November 2024, the district officer forwarded it, but no money landed in her bank by July 2025 — eight months later. She filed an RTI online at rtionline.assam.gov.in addressed to the SPIO, Directorate of Welfare of SCs and Backward Classes, Dispur, paid Rs. 10 by net banking, and asked the five questions above. Within 27 days the directorate replied: her file had been held back for “bank name mismatch” between her NSP form and her Aadhaar-seeded account, and that “no rejection order had been passed.” She submitted a fresh bank proof to her institute, and the next PFMS cycle credited her scholarship. The total fix took under six weeks from the day she filed the RTI — the silent file had simply been waiting for someone to look at it.

The takeaway is consistent across Assam: the money has usually been sanctioned, but a small data mismatch is sitting in a queue and nobody will pull it unless you trigger a written 30-day obligation.

Both work. Online filing is at https://rtionline.assam.gov.in/ with net-banking payment of Rs. 10; you get an instant reference number and can track status. Postal filing by Speed Post to the SPIO's office, with an IPO of Rs. 10, is equally valid under the Assam RTI Rules 2005. Use Speed Post only when your specific public authority is not yet registered on the portal.

Rs. 10 per application, payable by Indian Postal Order, demand draft, banker's cheque, cash against proper receipt, or online net banking. If you are Below Poverty Line, enclose a BPL certificate and the Rs. 10 fee is waived. Extra supply cost (Rs. 2 per A4 page, Rs. 50 per diskette, Rs. 5 per hour of inspection after the first hour) applies only if you ask for bulky records.

The SPIO of the Directorate of Welfare of Scheduled Castes and Backward Classes, Assam, located at Dispur, Guwahati. This directorate runs the Pre-Matric and Post-Matric SC and OBC scholarship cycles for Assam under the NSP umbrella, so it holds the verification and sanction records.

The SPIO of the Directorate of Higher Education, Assam, headquartered at Kahilipara, Guwahati-19. The DHE also holds records for the PG Research / PhD scholarship, M.Phil scholarship, and PG L.L.M. scholarship. For state-level engineering scholarships and the NEC Merit Scholarship, the SPIO sits at the Directorate of Technical Education, Assam.

Only indirectly. Ishan Uday is a central UGC scholarship for North-East students, so the public authority is UGC, not an Assam directorate. File that RTI through the central portal at https://rtionline.gov.in addressed to the CPIO, UGC. However, your institute's verification of the Ishan Uday form is held by the institute (a deemed public authority if it is government-aided), and an Assam RTI to the institute's SPIO can shake the verification loose.

No. Under §6(2) of the RTI Act you do not have to give any reason for requesting information, and no officer can demand one. The only details required are your name and contact — not even your caste, religion, or category, although giving your application ID helps the SPIO locate the file faster.

Deemed refusal. You can file a First Appeal under §19(1) within 30 days of the expiry of the reply period to the First Appellate Authority of the same directorate. The FAA must usually decide within 30 days (extendable to 45). If the FAA is also silent, file a Second Appeal under §19(3) to the Assam Information Commission within 90 days.

The Assam Information Commission can award compensation under §19(8)(b) for any loss suffered due to the unlawful withholding of information, including genuine financial loss from a delayed scholarship. You must plead the loss specifically in your second appeal — for example, “lost opportunity to pay fees on time, forced to borrow at X% interest” — with supporting documents. The Commission cannot itself disburse the scholarship, but a strong order usually unblocks the file.

There is no caste-based fee waiver in the Assam RTI Rules; the only fee waiver is for Below Poverty Line applicants who enclose a valid BPL certificate. A student whose family holds a BPL card can file free. Otherwise every applicant, irrespective of category, pays Rs. 10.

Do not attach original documents. You can mention your application ID, bank account number (last 4 digits), and registration date in the body of the RTI so the SPIO can locate the file. Attaching Aadhaar is unnecessary and not advisable from a privacy angle. The bank proof mismatch in many Assam cases is internal to the directorate — let them tell you what is mismatched rather than guessing.

Better not to. The Assam SPIO is the SPIO of one directorate, and each scholarship sits in a different directorate's file. File one RTI per directorate, but you can pack multiple questions about a single scholarship into one application. If your application concerns a record held by another public authority, the SPIO is bound to transfer it under §6(3) within five days and inform you.

An institute is itself a public authority if it is government or government-aided. File the RTI to the SPIO of the institute (usually the Principal, designated as APIO/SPIO under §5) asking for the date of forwarding, the mode, and the recipient at the directorate. If it is a private self-financing college, the route is through the affiliating university or the directorate that the college reports to.

The Commission does not publish a fixed disposal timeline, and Assam has historically carried a backlog of pending appeals. In practice, once your second appeal is numbered, you may get a hearing notice within two to four months. Mentioning urgency (“final-year student, fees due”) in the appeal memo and following up by email to the Registrar can advance the date. The penalty power under §20(1) (up to Rs. 25,000 on the SPIO) is the Commission's main lever.

1. Right to Information Act, 2005 — §§2(f), 4, 5, 6, 7, 19, 20.
2. Assam Right to Information (Regulation of Fee and Cost) Rules, 2005 — published via the Government of Assam Administrative Reforms Department; sets a Rs. 10 application fee and the additional fee schedule.
3. Assam RTI Online Portal — https://rtionline.assam.gov.in/ (Administrative Reforms, Training, Pension and Public Grievances Department, Government of Assam; maintained by Assam Information Commission and NIC).
4. State Information Commission, Assam — https://sic.assam.gov.in/public/ — address Godapani Path, Juripar, Panjabari, Behind P & RD Office, Guwahati-781037; phones 0361-2332704, 7099067509, 2331193; email [email protected].
5. Bongaigaon District, Assam — RTI page — https://bongaigaon.assam.gov.in/information-and-services/right-information-act-2005-rti — confirming the Rs. 10 fee, the modes of payment (cash against proper receipt / demand draft / banker's cheque / Indian postal order), and the additional fee schedule.
6. Directorate of Higher Education, Assam — https://directorateofhighereducation.assam.gov.in/ and https://highereducation.assam.gov.in/portlets/scholarships-0 — for Combined Merit, PG Research / PhD, M.Phil, PG L.L.M. scholarship scheme details.
7. Directorate of Welfare of Scheduled Castes and Backward Classes, Assam, Dispur, Guwahati — Pre-Matric and Post-Matric SC & OBC scholarship cycles under the NSP umbrella.
8. Directorate of Technical Education, Assam — NEC Merit Scholarship & Book Grant, State Engineering & Technological Merit Scholarship process flows as published by the Higher Education Department, Government of Assam.
9. National Scholarship Portal — https://scholarships.gov.in/ — log in to retrieve your Application ID and check the current academic-year cycle.
10. Central RTI portal gateway — https://rti.gov.in — for central ministries (UGC, AICTE, Ministry of Minority Affairs).