RTI for PAN Card Status in Punjab

This page is the Punjab-specific companion to the parent guide RTI for PAN card status. It does not repeat the national template; it answers the questions that a Punjab resident — in Ludhiana, Amritsar, Jalandhar, Patiala, Bathinda or any of the 23 districts — actually asks: which authority holds my PAN file, what fee do I pay from here, how do I file online without travelling, and where do I escalate when the department goes silent.

This is the single most misunderstood point and the reason most Punjab filers send their application to the wrong office. The Permanent Account Number is allotted under Section 139A of the Income-tax Act, 1961, and the entire PAN ecosystem — allotment, printing, correction, status — is owned by the Income Tax Department / CBDT, which is a central public authority. The two agencies that physically process applications, Protean (formerly NSDL e-Gov) and UTIITSL, are only service intermediaries acting on behalf of CBDT; they are not the public authority that holds the information for RTI purposes.

What this means in practice:

So unlike a Punjab ration-card or PMAY-Gramin RTI — which goes to a state PIO and is governed by the Punjab State RTI Rules — your PAN RTI is governed by the Central RTI Rules and the second appeal lands at the Central Information Commission in New Delhi. The https://rti.punjab.gov.in/ portal you may have heard about is a state portal for Punjab government departments only; filing a PAN query there will simply get returned. The central portal https://rtionline.gov.in/ is the correct online route, and it explicitly serves Central Government public authorities including the Department of Revenue / CBDT.

This is why the Punjab state-scheme hub covers state subjects separately, while PAN — along with Aadhaar, passport and EPF — sits under the all-states PAN card RTI index as a centrally-administered service.

Because PAN data is held centrally by the Income Tax Department, there is no “Punjab PAN PIO” in a district office. The correct Public Information Officer is the CPIO designated by the CBDT for PAN-related information. In the RTI hierarchy:

1. CPIO (Central PIO) — the designated officer of the Income Tax Department handling PAN matters; the nodal point of contact for status queries.
2. Nodal CPIO — the DGIT (Systems) wing of the Income Tax Department, which is the technical custodian of the PAN database and routes RTI applications to the correct unit.
3. First Appellate Authority (FAA) — an officer one rung above the CPIO within CBDT, named in each public authority's §4(1)(b) disclosure.
4. Central Information Commission (CIC) — the second-appellate body for all central authorities, including CBDT.

When you file online through https://rtionline.gov.in/, you select Ministry of Finance → Department of Revenue → Central Board of Direct Taxes as the public authority, and the portal automatically routes the application to the correct CPIO and assigns you a registration number. When you file by post, address it to the CPIO, CBDT (Income Tax Department), care of the jurisdictional officer — and, if you are unsure which officer that is, address it to the Nodal CPIO, Directorate of Income Tax (Systems), who is legally required under §6(3) to transfer it to the right CPIO within five days.

A practical note for Punjab filers: even though your PAN was applied for from a Jalandhar or Amritsar address, the file almost never sits in a Punjab income-tax office. It sits in the central PAN processing system, so do not hand-deliver the RTI to your local Aayakar Bhavan expecting an on-the-spot answer — post it to the CPIO or file it on the central portal.

Because this is a central RTI, the Central RTI Rules, not the Punjab State RTI Rules, set the fee. The fee schedule is the same whether you live in Mohali or Mumbai:

Two cautions specific to Punjab. First, do not use the Punjab state IPO denomination of Rs. 50 that applies to some state applications — that is a state-rule amount and is irrelevant here; the central fee is the flat Rs. 10. Second, if you are filing online, the portal adds a small gateway charge on top of the Rs. 10, so your card may show Rs. 11 or so — that is the bank fee, not a government fee. For the full fee comparison across central and state regimes see RTI fees by state.

Online filing is the cleanest path for a Punjab resident because it removes the postal delay and gives you a tracked registration number instantly. Step by step:

1. Open the central portal at https://rtionline.gov.in/ and click Submit Request. Read the declaration that this portal is only for Central Government public authorities — and confirm, because CBDT is central.
2. Select the public authority: Ministry of Finance → Department of Revenue → Central Board of Direct Taxes. This is what locks your application to the PAN-holding authority.
3. Write your application in the box provided, framed as the 5 questions in the sample below, and clearly state your 15-digit acknowledgement number or 10-digit PAN, name and date of birth as filled in the original application.
4. Pay Rs. 10 through UPI, internet banking, or debit/credit/RuPay card.
5. Save the registration number (format starts with the year, e.g. `DOPTC/R/2026/…`) and the PDF receipt. This number is your proof of filing and is needed for the First Appeal.

The portal sends you both an SMS and an email confirmation. The 30-day clock starts on the date the CPIO receives it, which for online filings is the same day. Do not confuse this portal with the Punjab state portal at rti.punjab.gov.in — that one is for state departments and will not accept a PAN query.

If you would rather have the application drafted for you from your specific facts, the AI RTI Drafter produces the §6 framing and the five questions ready to paste into the portal.

If the portal is down, or you prefer a paper trail, postal filing is fully valid. From any Punjab head post office (Ludhiana GPO, Amritsar GPO, Jalandhar City HO, Chandigarh GPO for the tri-city, etc.):

1. Print the application using the sample at the bottom of this page on plain white paper. There is no prescribed stationery.
2. Attach the fee: an Indian Postal Order (IPO) for Rs. 10 crossed and made payable to “Accounts Officer, CBDT” (or the specific Accounts Officer of the public authority, if known). Court-fee stamps of Rs. 10 are also accepted for central authorities; demand drafts work but cost more.
3. Speed Post it to the CPIO, CBDT (PAN), Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance — or, if you are unsure of the exact addressee, to the Nodal CPIO, Directorate of Income Tax (Systems), with a clear request under §6(3) to transfer it to the correct CPIO within five days.
4. Keep three things: the Speed Post receipt, the article number, and the IPO counterfoil. The India Post tracking screenshot showing “Item Delivery Confirmed” is your proof of receipt, and the 30-day clock runs from that delivery date, not from the day you posted it.

A common Punjab-specific error is to drop the application at the local Aayakar Bhavan (the income-tax office in your city) addressed to “PIO, Income Tax”. That office handles local assessment matters and will usually either sit on it or return it. For PAN status, the central routing — either the online portal or the CBDT CPIO by post — is what works.

Vague questions get vague answers. Frame your RTI around five tight, specific questions, each tied to a fact the department must retrieve from its own records:

1. Daily status log of my application No. [acknowledgement number] from [date of application] to today, including the date it moved into each stage.
2. Reason for the delay beyond the normal processing time, with the file noting or internal note recording the cause.
3. Name and designation of the officer currently handling my file, and the office where it physically sits.
4. Documents, if any, pending from me — a clear list of exactly what is awaited, so you know whether the ball is in your court.
5. Expected date of despatch of the physical card or the e-PAN to my address on record, and the AWB / speed-post tracking number once despatched.

These five map directly onto the information the CBDT and its PAN processors (Protean/NSDL and UTIITSL) hold in their system, so the CPIO cannot truthfully say “information not held”. The parent guide RTI for PAN card status explains the reasoning behind each question and the case-law backdrop; the PIO Reply Checker then helps you test whether the reply you get back is actually compliant.

Under §7(1) of the RTI Act 2005, the CPIO must reply within 30 days of receiving your application. If your request concerns the life or liberty of a person, the window shrinks to 48 hours — but a routine PAN status query does not qualify for that. The escalation timeline is:

Two practical points. First, the “reasonable time” the FAA gets is not a free pass — if the FAA does not decide within about 30 days, you are entitled to treat that as a deemed refusal and move to the CIC. Second, the CIC can levy a penalty of Rs. 250 per day (up to Rs. 25,000) on a CPIO who has unreasonably refused or delayed, and can even recommend disciplinary action. The RTI Timeline Calculator works out the exact dates for your own case so you do not miss a deadline.

The First Appeal is your first escalation when the CPIO is silent, has refused, or has given an evasive reply. Key rules:

1. Where: to the First Appellate Authority (FAA) designated by CBDT, one rung above the CPIO. When you filed through https://rtionline.gov.in/, you can file the First Appeal online on the same portal (the “Submit First Appeal” link) using your original registration number.
2. When: within 30 days of the date you should have received the CPIO's reply (i.e. roughly Day 31 to Day 60). If you miss 30 days, you can still file if you show “sufficient cause” for the delay, but it is at the FAA's discretion.
3. What to write: a short, dated letter stating (a) the original RTI registration number and date, (b) that no reply was received by Day 30 (or that the reply was inadequate), © the specific information still sought, and (d) a prayer that the FAA direct the CPIO to furnish the information.
4. Fee: the First Appeal itself carries no additional fee under the Central RTI Rules.

If you want a ready structure, the First Appeal Drafter builds the §19(1) letter from your original RTI details.

If the FAA also fails — or you disagree with the FAA's order — the next and final tier is the Central Information Commission (CIC), the commission that handles second appeals for all central public authorities, including CBDT. (This is another reason the Punjab State Information Commission is the wrong forum for a PAN RTI: it has no jurisdiction over a central authority.)

1. Website: https://cic.gov.in/ — the CIC's Second Appeal and Complaint portal is linked from the homepage. As of 2026 the portal integrates with the DoPT RTI Online portal, so you can pull in your First Appeal details by registration number, email and date.
2. Time limit: within 90 days of the FAA's order (or the date the FAA should have decided), under §19(3). The CIC may condone delay for sufficient cause.
3. What to attach: copies of the original RTI, the CPIO's reply (or proof of no reply), the First Appeal, the FAA's order (or proof of no order), and the postal/online proof of each.
4. Outcome: the CIC can order disclosure, recommend departmental action against the CPIO, and impose penalty under §20.

Because the CIC sits in New Delhi and most hearings are now conducted over video conference, a Punjab appellant does not need to travel — you receive a VC link and file written submissions through the CIC's portal. The full body of landmark CIC and High Court orders on information rights is indexed on our RTI case-law index.

An RTI is powerful but slow — it gets you information, not the card itself. Run these in parallel to actually move your PAN:

1. CPGRAMS (Centralised Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System) at https://pgportal.gov.in/ — file a grievance against the Income Tax Department / CBDT for the delay. CPGRAMS targets resolution, not just information, and often nudges the file faster than an RTI.
2. Protean (NSDL) / UTIITSL status check — track your application directly at https://www.tin-nsdl.com/ or https://www.utiitsl.com/ using your 15-digit acknowledgement number before escalating; the status may already show “PAN allotted, under despatch” or “rejected for deficiency”.
3. Aadhaar-PAN linking status on the Income Tax portal at https://www.incometax.gov.in/ — many “PAN not working” complaints are actually un-linked PANs, not a card delay.
4. Local grievance helpline / Punjab citizen services — these will not fix a central PAN issue, but the Sewa Kendra network and the state grievance portal can help you scan and submit documents to Protean/UTIITSL if you lack internet access.

Stacking CPGRAMS (for action) on top of an RTI (for information) is the combination that consistently works for delayed PAN matters.

This is a composite of common PAN-delay patterns Punjab filers report — the figures are illustrative, not from a single verified case file.

Harjit Kaur, a schoolteacher in Ludhiana, applied for a reprint of PAN for her teenage son on 12 February 2026 through one of the online aggregators, paying roughly Rs. 107 (the standard UTIITSL physical-card fee). By mid-April — over two months later — the acknowledgement-status page still read “Application under processing”. Speed-post letters to the local income-tax office went unanswered. On 18 April she filed an RTI through https://rtionline.gov.in/, selecting CBDT as the authority and asking the five questions above. Within 23 days the CPIO replied: the file was on hold because the father's name field had a spelling mismatch, and listed the exact document needed to resolve it. She uploaded the corrected affidavit through Protean's correction portal the same week, and the card was despatched by Day 38 of the RTI reply. In parallel she had raised a CPGRAMS grievance, which independently flagged the same deficiency a few days after the RTI reply.

The lesson is typical: the PAN was never “lost” — the department simply had not told her what was pending. The RTI forced that disclosure. The Awaaz RTI helper tracks exactly this kind of deadline-and-reply cycle so you do not have to count the days manually.

1. Filing on the Punjab state portal (rti.punjab.gov.in) instead of the central one. The state portal serves Punjab government departments and cannot reach CBDT. It is also intermittently under maintenance; treat it as for state subjects only.
2. Addressing the local Aayakar Bhavan in your city for a PAN status query — that office does not hold the PAN file.
3. Paying the state fee of Rs. 50 instead of the central Rs. 10, or using a state IPO format the central Accounts Officer will not accept.
4. Asking “give me my PAN card” instead of asking for the status information — the RTI Act gets you information, not the service itself; pair it with CPGRAMS for the service.
5. Missing the First Appeal window and jumping straight to the CIC, which the Commission will reject as premature.
6. Forgetting to quote the acknowledgement number and date of birth in the application, leaving the CPIO unable to locate the file even if willing.

1. §3 — defines who can request information: every citizen, which is why PAN filers in Punjab are fully covered.
2. §6(1) — the right to request information from a CPIO, the section your application heading cites.
3. §6(3) — if you file with the wrong CPIO, that officer must transfer the application to the correct one within five days and inform you. This is your safety net if your postal RTI lands at the wrong desk.
4. §7(1) — the 30-day reply deadline, the heart of the entire timeline.
5. §7(2) — the fee structure, including the Rs. 10 charge and reproduction costs for bulky records.
6. §19(1) — the First Appeal right, used when the CPIO is silent or wrong.
7. §19(3) — the Second Appeal to the Information Commission within 90 days.
8. §20 — the CIC's power to penalise a CPIO Rs. 250 per day up to Rs. 25,000 and recommend disciplinary action.

The full text of the Act and the Rules is on our RTI Act page.

Copy this into the rtionline.gov.in box, or print it for a postal filing. Replace everything in square brackets with your own details.

To,
The Central Public Information Officer (CPIO),
Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT),
Ministry of Finance, Government of India.

Subject: Application under Section 6(1) of the Right to Information Act, 2005 —
status of PAN application No. [15-digit acknowledgement number]

Sir/Madam,

I, [Your full name], son/daughter of [Father's name],
a citizen of India residing at [your full Punjab address], had applied for
[allotment of new PAN / reprint of PAN / correction in PAN] on [date of
application] through [Protean (NSDL) / UTIITSL], acknowledgement number
[15-digit number]. The PAN applied for is [10-digit PAN, if known].
Date of birth as filled in the application: [DD/MM/YYYY].

The application has not been disposed of within the normal time. I therefore
seek the following information under Section 6(1), to be furnished within
30 days under Section 7(1):

1. The day-wise status of my application from [date of application] to the
   date of this RTI, including the date it moved into each processing stage.
2. The specific reason for the delay in disposing of the application beyond
   the normal processing time, with a copy of the file noting or internal
   communication recording the cause.
3. The name, designation and office address of the officer currently
   handling my application.
4. A list of any document(s) or clarification(s) pending from me, if any,
   that are holding up disposal.
5. The expected date of despatch of the physical PAN card or e-PAN to my
   address on record, and the speed-post / courier tracking number once
   despatched.

A fee of Rs. 10 is paid [online through rtionline.gov.in registration
number DOPTC/R/2026/XXXXXX / by Indian Postal Order No. XXXXX dated
DD/MM/YYYY for Rs. 10 payable to "Accounts Officer, CBDT"]. If the
information is held by a different CPIO, kindly transfer this application
under Section 6(3) within five days and inform me.

Place: [Your city, Punjab]
Date: [DD/MM/YYYY]

[Signature]
[Your full name]
[Mobile number]
[Email]

No. That portal is for Punjab state government departments only. A PAN is a central CBDT matter, so file on https://rtionline.gov.in/ (central) or by post to the CBDT CPIO. The state portal will not route a PAN query to the right office.

Rs. 10. Because PAN is central, the Central RTI Rules set the fee, not the Punjab State RTI Rules. The Rs. 50 figure applies to certain state applications and is irrelevant here.

Yes. BPL certificate holders file RTI free of cost; attach a copy of the BPL certificate in lieu of the fee. This applies to central filings including CBDT.

Ask the CBDT CPIO, not NSDL directly. Protean (NSDL) and UTIITSL are intermediaries; the information authority is CBDT. File the RTI to CBDT and CBDT will pull the despatch status from its processor.

Not as a complete answer. The CPIO must furnish the information held by the public authority, and CBDT holds (or can direct its processor to release) the status log, the despatch details and the reason for delay. If the reply merely redirects you, treat it as a deemed refusal and file a First Appeal under §19(1).

No. The CIC conducts most hearings by video conference, so you can attend from anywhere in Punjab. You file written submissions through the CIC portal at https://cic.gov.in/ and receive a VC link for the hearing date.

No. Personal information of a third party is exempt under §8(1)(j) unless there is a larger public interest. You can always ask about your own PAN, your minor child's PAN, or (with proper authorisation) a PAN you have a legal relationship to.

Recover it first from the confirmation email/SMS sent by Protean or UTIITSL, or from the “Know Your PAN” / status trackers on tin-nsdl.com and utiitsl.com. Without an identifier the CPIO cannot locate the file. The RTI can itself ask for “any application filed by me with name and DOB XYZ”, but it is much slower than finding the number yourself.

Be cautious. The only statutorily enforceable clock in an RTI is the 30-day window under §7(1) of the RTI Act. Do not rely on internal service-level numbers you cannot verify; build your case on §7(1), §19(1) and §19(3), which the CIC will enforce.

Yes. Any citizen can authorise another person to file on their behalf with a signed authorisation letter. NGOs and RTI activists regularly help PAN applicants; the citizen's identity, not the filer's presence, is what matters under §3.

An RTI will tell you why it was rejected — the exact ground, the document flagged, the officer's note. Once you know the ground, file a fresh/correction application or a CPGRAMS grievance. The RTI is your diagnostic tool, not the appeal channel for the rejection itself.

Yes. The RTI Act's 30 days are calendar days, not working days. Count 30 calendar days from the date of receipt by the CPIO to know when the reply is due.

No credible evidence supports this, and the Act explicitly protects information seekers. CBDT processes PANs centrally in a queue; an RTI does not push your file backwards, and if anything the disclosure pressure tends to surface the underlying blocker so it can be cleared.

• RTI for PAN card status (parent guide) — full national template, decision tree and FAQs.
• RTI for PAN card status across all states
• All RTI schemes for Punjab
• State RTI portals directory
• RTI fees by state
• The RTI Act 2005 and landmark RTI case law
• AI RTI Drafter, First Appeal Drafter, RTI Timeline Calculator, PIO Reply Checker, Awaaz RTI