RTI for PAN card status in Manipur

This page is the Manipur-specific companion to the parent guide RTI for PAN card status. The parent guide has the full national template, the case law, and the FAQs. This page focuses on what a citizen in Imphal, Churachandpur, Ukhrul, Senapati, Bishnupur, Thoubal, Kakching, Jiribam, Noney, Pherzawl, Tengnoupal, Chandel, Tamenglong, Kamjong, or Kangpokpi actually does differently. It also corrects two common confusions that cost Manipur applicants weeks: that PAN is a state subject (it is not), and that a Manipur state RTI portal exists for it (it does not — you use the central portal).

This is the single most important fact on this page, and getting it wrong is the top reason Manipur applicants lose three to four weeks. A PAN card is a central record. It is allotted and held by the Income Tax Department under the supervision of the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), Ministry of Finance. The two agencies that physically process PAN applications — Protean (formerly NSDL e-Gov) at tin-nsdl.com and UTIITSL at utiitsl.com — are service providers, not the data owner. The data owner is the Income Tax Department.

Because the public authority that holds your PAN record is a central authority, the Right to Information Act treats your application as a central matter. This has three direct consequences for a Manipur resident:

1. You file through the central RTI portal at rtionline.gov.in, which the Department of Personnel and Training explicitly states is meant for “Ministries/Departments and other Public Authorities of Central Government” and not for state government authorities. That is exactly your situation.
2. The fee is Rs. 10 under the Right to Information (Regulation of Fee and Cost) Rules, 2012, not whatever a Manipur state fee schedule says. State fee schedules apply only when you file against a Manipur state public authority.
3. Your Second Appeal goes to the Central Information Commission (CIC) at cic.gov.in, not to the Manipur State Information Commission. A Second Appeal misfiled with the Manipur commission for a PAN matter will be returned as out-of-jurisdiction.

A quick test: if your complaint is about NSDL or UTIITSL losing your form, a coupon not updating, a reprint not arriving, or a correction stuck for months, the records you want ultimately sit with CBDT. File centrally. The parent guide RTI for PAN card status explains the full decision tree.

There is no “Manipur PAN PIO.” The PIO is a central officer. Depending on what you are asking, your application is addressed to one of the following:

When you file on rtionline.gov.in you do not need to know the officer's name. You select the public authority (Ministry of Finance > Department of Revenue > Central Board of Direct Taxes) and the portal routes it internally. This is far more reliable for a Manipur applicant than guessing an address, because postal transit to a specific named officer in another state is where most paper applications get stuck.

For a deeper look at how PIOs, FAAs, and the Commission fit together, see the RTI Act 2005 plain-English guide.

Because this is a central matter, the fee is fixed by the Right to Information (Regulation of Fee and Cost) Rules, 2012 (notified by the Department of Personnel and Training on 31 July 2012):

Two practical points for Manipur applicants:

1. Do not use a Manipur-state fee schedule for a PAN RTI. State fee rules apply only when the public authority is a Manipur state body. The PAN record is central, so the central Rs. 10 fee applies even though you live in Manipur.
2. Online payment is the default on rtionline.gov.in. You can pay through internet banking, debit/credit card (Visa, Master, RuPay), or UPI. If you instead file a paper application by Speed Post, a Rs. 10 Indian Postal Order (IPO) drawn in favour of the accounts officer of the public authority, or a Bank Draft, is acceptable. IPOs are still sold at head post offices in Imphal (Imphal-795001 HO) and major district post offices, though the Department of Posts is gradually de-emphasising them in favour of electronic payments.

The full state-by-state fee comparison (useful when an applicant's matter genuinely falls under a state authority) is on the RTI fees by state page.

Yes, and for PAN you should. The central portal rtionline.gov.in is verified live and works from any internet connection in Manipur, including a Common Service Centre or a BSNL mobile hotspot. This is the cleanest path because it generates a registration number, an acknowledgement, and a date stamp the moment you pay the Rs. 10 fee.

What you do on the portal:

1. Register once with your name, address (use your Manipur address), and a mobile number.
2. Choose Submit Request.
3. In the public-authority dropdown, navigate to Ministry of Finance > Department of Revenue > Central Board of Direct Taxes.
4. Paste your application text (the sample below works) and pay Rs. 10 by UPI, card, or net banking.
5. Save the registration number (format starts with MOF…) and the PDF acknowledgement.

What the portal will not do: it will not accept an application against a Manipur state authority. The portal itself states that applications for state-government public authorities “would be returned, without refund of amount.” That is irrelevant for PAN (which is central), but it matters if you ever confuse a PAN matter with, say, a Manipur state PDS or land-records matter — those belong on a different path. See the state portals directory for those.

If for any reason you cannot use the portal — poor connectivity on the day, no UPI, or you simply prefer paper — the postal route is fully valid: print the application, attach the Rs. 10 IPO, and send it by India Post Speed Post with acknowledgement due to the Central Public Information Officer of the public authority. Keep the Speed Post tracking number and the acknowledgement; together they prove the date of receipt, which starts the 30-day clock. Postal transit from Manipur to Delhi, Mumbai, or Bengaluru can take five to ten days, so add that buffer when you plan.

To draft the application text in seconds, use the AI RTI Drafter before you paste it into the portal.

You do not need many documents, but the ones you do need decide whether your RTI is answered or bounced as “not reasonably identifiable.” Before you sit down to file, assemble:

1. Your 15-digit acknowledgement number from the PAN application (issued by Protean/NSDL or UTIITSL when you filed). Without this, the PIO cannot locate your file.
2. The date of application and the mode (online / physical TIN-FC) you used.
3. Your name, father's name, and date of birth exactly as filled, because the PAN database matches on these.
4. Proof of payment of the PAN application fee (the NSDL/UTIITSL payment receipt).
5. Your complete Manipur postal address with PIN code for the reply.
6. A copy of any prior grievance reference if you already raised a ticket with NSDL/UTIITSL or on CPGRAMS — cite those numbers.

If you are filing as a Below Poverty Line household to claim the fee waiver, carry the BPL certificate or ration card that the Manipur government issued; the central rules honour it but you must attach a self-attested copy.

A common Manipur-specific hiccup is the address PIN. Several hill districts (Noney, Pherzawl, Kamjong, Tengnoupal) have PIN codes that the PAN system occasionally flags as “unserviceable” for physical card delivery. That is a PAN-application issue, not an RTI issue, but it is worth raising as one of your five questions if the hold-up appears to be postal delivery rather than allotment.

The RTI Act rewards specificity. Vague questions (“Why is my PAN delayed?”) invite vague or refused answers. The five-question structure below is designed to force a dated, factual reply from CBDT. Each question maps to a record CBDT either holds or must retrieve from its intermediary:

1. Question 1 — Application status: “Please inform the current status of PAN application acknowledgement number XYZ, filed on DD-MM-YYYY through Protean/NSDL/UTIITSL.”
2. Question 2 — Reason for delay: “If the PAN has not been allotted, please provide the specific reason for the delay and the date by which it is expected to be allotted.”
3. Question 3 — Verification or rejection flags: “Please inform whether the application is under any name, date-of-birth, or address verification, and if so, since what date and on what grounds.”
4. Question 4 — Dispatch and delivery: “If the PAN card has been dispatched, please provide the dispatch date, the courier or Speed Post tracking number, and the delivery address used.”
5. Question 5 — Action-taken copy: “Please provide a certified copy of all notes, system entries, and correspondence on the file relating to this application from the date of filing to the date of this RTI request.”

These five questions together are enough to either get your PAN moving or to expose exactly where it is stuck. The full national template, with worked variations for correction, surrender, duplicate, and Aadhaar-linking cases, is on the parent page RTI for PAN card status.

Before you finalise the wording, run your draft through the AI RTI Drafter and the PIO Reply Checker (the latter is more useful after you get the reply, to test whether the PIO actually answered or dodged).

The RTI Act sets the deadlines, and they are strict. The clock starts on the date the public authority receives your application, not the date you click submit on the portal.

For life-or-liberty (48-hour) treatment, your request must genuinely involve a threat to life or liberty — a delayed PAN almost never qualifies, so plan on the 30-day window. Mark the dates on a calendar; the RTI Timeline Calculator does the arithmetic for you, including the postal buffer if you filed by Speed Post from Manipur.

A useful habit: on Day 33, if nothing has arrived, do not wait. Draft and file the First Appeal the same week. Delays compound, and the FAA stage is where most stuck PAN matters actually unblock.

Silence is not a denial, and under the RTI Act silence has consequences for the PIO, not for you. Your options at Day 31:

1. File a First Appeal under section 19(1). The First Appellate Authority is one rung above the PIO in the same public authority. On rtionline.gov.in you can file the First Appeal online using the original registration number; the portal prefills most of the details. The FAA must decide within 30 days, extendable to 45.
2. Deemed-refusal stance. If the PIO neither replied nor denied, the law treats this as a deemed refusal, and you can proceed straight to appeal without waiting for a “no.”
3. Ask for penalty and compensation. In the appeal, specifically pray for a penalty under section 20(1) (Rs. 250 per day of delay, capped at Rs. 25,000) and for compensation under section 19(8)(b) for any loss the delay caused you (for example, a blocked tax refund, a refused bank account, or a missed application deadline).

The First Appeal is short and factual. State the registration number, the date of filing, the absence of a reply, and the relief sought. The First Appeal Drafter produces the full text in the format the CBDT FAA expects.

Do not skip the First Appeal and jump to the Commission — the Commission almost always asks whether you exhausted the FAA stage, and skipping it weakens your Second Appeal.

If the FAA also fails — no decision within 45 days, or a decision you reject — the Second Appeal goes to the Central Information Commission at cic.gov.in. This is the body for PAN matters because PAN is central; the Manipur State Information Commission has no jurisdiction here.

The CIC now accepts Second Appeals online through its integrated portal, which pulls your First Appeal details directly from the rtionline.gov.in system when you enter the First Appeal registration number, your email, and the date of filing. The CIC's published guidelines require:

1. A signed Second Appeal addressed to the Commission.
2. A copy of the original RTI application.
3. A copy of the PIO reply, if any.
4. A copy of the First Appeal and the FAA order, if any.
5. Proof of the fee payment and the registration numbers at each stage.

The Second Appeal must be filed within 90 days of the FAA decision or of the date by which the FAA decision was due (section 19(3)). The 90-day limit is procedural, and the Commission can condone delay for good cause, but do not rely on condonation — file in time.

What you can pray for at the Commission:

1. A direction to the PIO to supply the information.
2. A penalty under section 20(1) against the PIO for unreasonable delay or refusal.
3. Compensation under section 19(8)(b).
4. A recommendation for departmental action against a habitual non-complier.

The CIC's reasoning on PAN-related delays is consistent and largely citizen-friendly; you can read the patterns in the RTI case-law digest. The Manipur angle rarely changes the legal analysis — it changes only the postal logistics and the address on the envelope.

Yes, and you should run this in parallel, not instead of, the RTI. Parallel pressure often unblocks a stuck PAN before the 30-day RTI clock even expires.

1. CPGRAMS at pgportal.gov.in (verified live) is the central public-grievance portal. File under “Ministry of Finance > Department of Revenue > Central Board of Direct Taxes” with your acknowledgement number. CPGRAMS grievance redressal is faster than RTI but is not legally binding in the same way; it is an administrative nudge.
2. The Income Tax Department's own grievance system on incometax.gov.in handles “PAN” category grievances and is worth raising before you escalate.
3. A grievance with the intermediary (Protean/NSDL or UTIITSL) using the complaint link on its website — keep the ticket number and cite it in your RTI.
4. For Manipur state matters (not PAN) the relevant state channel is reachable through manipur.gov.in. This is not a route for PAN itself, because PAN is central, but it is the right channel if your complaint spills over into a Manipur-state service (for example, a state-government employer refusing to process your salary because your PAN record is stuck).

The combined RTI + CPGRAMS + Income Tax grievance approach is the single most effective pattern for a Manipur applicant, because it surfaces your file in three independent systems. If you want a guided, voice-based route to raise the grievance, the Awaaz RTI tool walks you through it.

You do not need a lawyer to file this RTI, and you should not pay anyone to “file it on your behalf” unless they are a recognised Common Service Centre operator charging only the statutory fee plus a small service charge. Practical local options:

1. Common Service Centres (CSCs) across Manipur's districts can file an rtionline.gov.in application for you for a small service fee over and above the Rs. 10 fee. They also print and scan documents, which helps if you do not have a printer at home.
2. Head Post Offices in Imphal and the district headquarters sell the Rs. 10 IPO for paper filing and book Speed Post with acknowledgement, which is your proof of receipt for a postal application.
3. TIN Facilitation Centres of Protean/NSDL and the PAN centres of UTIITSL handle new PAN applications and corrections in person. Locate the current Manipur centre through the centre-search on tin-nsdl.com before travelling, because centre lists change. A TIN-FC cannot accept an RTI, but it is the right place to resolve the underlying PAN application that your RTI is about.
4. Citizen-service desks at the Deputy Commissioner's office in your district can help you draft the application and access the portal, though they cannot file a central RTI for you the way a CSC can.

A note on connectivity: internet and mobile-data services in parts of Manipur have been intermittently restricted in recent periods for security reasons. If you are filing during a restriction, file early in an available window, save the acknowledgement PDF locally the moment it generates, and keep a paper backup ready to Speed Post if the online submission fails.

For the broader Manipur RTI landscape — state authorities, the state commission for state matters, and other state schemes — start at all RTI schemes for Manipur.

Avoiding these eight errors is the difference between a resolved PAN and a six-month saga. The PIO Reply Checker will tell you, once a reply arrives, whether it actually answers your five questions or merely looks like it does.

This is a composite illustration drawn from the recurring pattern of PAN delays in the north-eastern states; specific dates and names are illustrative because the underlying files are private.

Rohit (name changed), a young professional from Imphal West, applied for a correction in his PAN — a one-character error in his father's name — through Protean/NSDL in February. The acknowledgement confirmed processing “within 15 working days.” Eight weeks later the status page still read “under processing.” A ticket raised with NSDL returned a boilerplate reply. His employer held back a tax-credit entry because the PAN and the payroll name did not match.

Rohit filed an RTI on rtionline.gov.in, selecting CBDT, paying Rs. 10 by UPI, and pasting the five questions above with his acknowledgement number. On Day 26 the PIO replied: the correction was held because the supporting document (a matriculation certificate) was “illegible in scan.” The reply gave the date the flag was raised, the desk that raised it, and the action needed.

Rohit re-uploaded a clean scan through the NSDL portal the same day and cited the RTI reply in the grievance ticket. The corrected PAN was generated within nine days. Total elapsed time from RTI filing to resolution: about five weeks, against the eight weeks of silence before it. The RTI did not allot the PAN; it forced the system to say, on the record, exactly what was wrong.

The lesson generalises across Manipur: the RTI's power here is not that it commands the PAN to be issued, but that it forces a dated, specific, file-referenced answer that you can then act on and, if needed, quote back to the intermediary and to CPGRAMS.

Paste this into rtionline.gov.in (or print and Speed Post it). Replace every field in square brackets. Keep the text concise and focused on the five questions below — long, rambling applications invite non-answers.

To the Central Public Information Officer,
Central Board of Direct Taxes,
Ministry of Finance, Government of India.

Subject: Application under section 6(1) of the Right to Information Act 2005
regarding status of PAN application.

Sir/Madam,

I, [Your Full Name], son/daughter of [Father's Name], a citizen of India
resident at [Your Full Manipur Address with PIN], hereby request 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
through [Protean/NSDL or UTIITSL], acknowledgement number
[15-digit token], filed on [DD-MM-YYYY].

The particulars of the information required are:

1. The current status of PAN application acknowledgement number
   [token], as on the date of this application.

2. If the PAN has not yet been allotted, the specific reason for the
   delay and the date by which allotment is now expected.

3. Whether the application is under any verification (name, date of
   birth, address, or photograph) and, if so, since what date and on
   what grounds.

4. If the PAN card has been dispatched, the dispatch date, the courier
   or Speed Post tracking number, and the delivery address used.

5. A certified copy of all notes, system entries, and correspondence
   on the file relating to this application from [filing date] to the
   date of this request.

I state that the information sought is not exempt under section 8 or 9
of the Act. I have deposited the application fee of Rs. 10 by [UPI /
Indian Postal Order No. ___ dated ___ / Bank Draft No. ___]. I belong
to the Below Poverty Line category [only if applicable; attach proof].

If this application is to be handled by a different Public Information
Officer, I request that it be transferred under section 6(3) within
five days and that I be informed of the transfer.

Please send the reply to the address given below.

Date: [DD-MM-YYYY]
Place: [City/Town, Manipur]

[Signature]
[Your Full Name]
[Full Address with PIN, Manipur]
[Mobile Number] [Email]

If the reply does not arrive within 30 days, the First Appeal Drafter turns the registration number and the silence into a properly framed section 19(1) appeal in minutes.

No, and you do not need one. PAN is a central subject, so the central portal rtionline.gov.in is the correct and verified-live portal for a Manipur resident. Manipur does not maintain a separate online RTI portal that I could confirm as live for PAN matters, and even if it did, a state portal cannot legally process a central-authority RTI.

For a PAN RTI it is the central Rs. 10 fee under the Right to Information (Regulation of Fee and Cost) Rules, 2012, because the public authority is the central CBDT. Manipur state fee rules would apply only if you filed against a Manipur state body, which PAN is not.

The RTI Act allows you to file in English, Hindi, or the official language of your area. Filing in English on rtionline.gov.in is the most reliable route for a PAN matter, because the reply will come from a central office. A Meitei-language application is lawful but may add translation time.

That is a PAN-application issue, not an RTI issue, but it is worth including as Question 4 (dispatch and delivery). If the card cannot be delivered to your PIN, ask the PIO to confirm the alternate address on record and request e-PAN delivery through the DigiLocker or the e-PAN download facility instead.

Address it to CBDT through rtionline.gov.in. NSDL (Protean) and UTIITSL are service providers that process on CBDT's behalf; the PAN master record is held by the Income Tax Department under CBDT. Routing through CBDT is the legally clean path and avoids jurisdictional arguments.

Speed Post from Manipur to Delhi, Mumbai, or Bengaluru typically takes five to ten days each way. The 30-day clock starts on the date the public authority receives your application, so add roughly two weeks of postal buffer when you plan your follow-up.

Section 7(1) requires a reply within 48 hours where the information concerns the life or liberty of a person. A routine PAN delay does not qualify. Reserve this route for genuine life-or-liberty situations; misusing it invites rejection.

Yes. The central fee rules waive the Rs. 10 fee for BPL applicants under Rule 5 of the RTI (Regulation of Fee and Cost) Rules, 2012. Attach a self-attested copy of your BPL certificate or the BPL ration card issued by the Manipur government when you file. On the online portal, the BPL waiver path is available but requires document upload.

That is a partial reply and a valid ground for First Appeal under section 19(1). Use the PIO Reply Checker to confirm which questions were dodged, then file the appeal listing each unanswered question.

Yes, in the First Appeal and the Second Appeal, pray for compensation under section 19(8)(b) for any loss attributable to the delay (blocked refund, refused account, missed deadline). The Commission has discretion, but the ask must be on record to be considered.

No. Because PAN is a central matter, the appellate body is the Central Information Commission (cic.gov.in). The Manipur State Information Commission handles only RTI appeals against Manipur state public authorities. Filing a PAN Second Appeal with the Manipur commission will be returned as out-of-jurisdiction and will cost you time within the 90-day window.

Yes. Under section 19(3) you must file the Second Appeal within 90 days of the FAA decision (or of the date it was due). The Commission can condone delay for good cause, but you should not depend on condonation. Use the RTI Timeline Calculator to mark the date.

Start at all RTI schemes for Manipur for state-authority matters, RTI for PAN card status across all states for how this page compares with other states, and the state portals directory for state online portals (where they exist).

Verified facts and live links used in this page:

1. Right to Information Act 2005 — sections 2(f), 6(1), 6(3), 7(1), 7(2), 19(1), 19(3), 19(6), 19(8), 20. Neither section 6 nor any other section imposes a word-count limit on the initial application.
2. Right to Information (Regulation of Fee and Cost) Rules, 2012 (notified by the Department of Personnel and Training on 31 July 2012) — Rs. 10 filing fee, Rs. 2/page photocopy (A4/A3), Rs. 50 diskette, free first-hour inspection, Rs. 5/hr thereafter, and the BPL fee waiver under Rule 5. These Rules superseded the earlier 2005 Fee Rules.
3. CIC Second Appeal Guidelines — references the RTI Rules, 2012 (Rule 8 and 9) and lists the documents required.
4. rtionline.gov.in — verified live; central RTI portal, works for Ministry of Finance > CBDT; states explicitly that it is for central public authorities and not state ones.
5. Protean / NSDL PAN services — verified live; Form 49A (citizens) and 49AA (foreign citizens); reprint fee Rs. 50 (Indian) / Rs. 959 (foreign).
6. UTIITSL — verified live; second authorised PAN agency.
7. Protean PAN portal — verified live.
8. Central Information Commission — verified live; Second Appeal body for central matters including PAN.
9. CPGRAMS — verified live; central public-grievance portal for parallel escalation.
10. Government of Manipur — verified live; reference for Manipur-state channels and the state portal.

Last reviewed: 18 July 2026.