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If your last RTI was rejected. See Why RTI Applications Get Rejected in India — and How to Avoid It. Five reasons, the exact fix for each, and two case studies of rejected RTIs corrected on appeal.
Editorial notes on legislative changes, major judgments, Commission orders, and practitioner issues under the Right to Information Act, 2005. Posts are published as matters are notified and are reviewed periodically.
New to RTI? Start with the three most-used guides on this site:
Scope
The blog covers the following categories.
- Legislative changes. Amendments to the Act, rules notified under it, and allied legislation that touches the right to information.
- Judgments. Decisions of the Supreme Court, the High Courts, and the Information Commissions that refine the working of the Act.
- Commission orders. Orders of administrative significance from the Central Information Commission and the State Information Commissions.
- Practitioner notes. Notes on drafting, appeals, penalties, third-party procedure, and recurring grounds of rejection.
- Status of the Commissions. Composition, pendency, and functioning of the Central and State Information Commissions.
Recent posts
Digital vs Physical RTI — How Channel Choice Decides Your Outcome
If you file your Right to Information application at rtionline.gov.in, you are ~14 percentage points more likely to receive a reply within 30 days than a citizen who files the same question by registered post — and ~32 points more likely than one who files it on a state portal. This long-form analysis of ~22.4 lakh Central-government RTIs filed in FY 2023-24 (DoPT Annual Report + rtionline.gov.in weekly disclosures + field audits by the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative and Satark Nagrik Sangathan) answers a question the policy literature has long sidestepped with anecdote: does the channel actually change the outcome? Short answer — yes, substantially, and asymmetrically across classes of information, states, and exemption clauses cited. Long answer follows, with every chart machine-readable and every number sourced.
In this evaluation:
Reviewed on: 23 April 2026. Maintained by the RTI Wiki editorial team. Data compiled from: DoPT RTI Annual Report 2022-23 (latest published), Central Information Commission (CIC) Annual Report 2023-24, rtionline.gov.in weekly application disclosures (DoPT Form C), Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) Tilting the Balance of Power (2024 update), Satark Nagrik Sangathan (SNS) People's Monitoring of the RTI Regime (2023-24).
Mere Pendency of a Final Decision Is Not a Valid Reason to Deny RTI
Direct Answer. The Central Information Commission has held that mere pendency of a decision, inquiry, or examination is not a valid ground to deny RTI disclosure. Unless the Public Information Officer specifically cites a Section 8 sub-clause AND shows how disclosure would prejudice the pending matter, the information must be released. Ratio: X v. Medical Council of India (CIC/YA/A/2016/001453, 9 January 2017), applied widely since.
Section 20 PIO penalty — when Rs 250/day applies
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Section 20(1) of the RTI Act 2005 empowers the Central / State Information Commission to impose a penalty of Rs 250 per day of delay, subject to a cap of Rs 25,000, on a Public Information Officer who (a) refuses to receive an RTI application, (b) fails to respond within Section 7(1), © malafidely denies information, (d) provides incorrect / incomplete / misleading information, or (e) destroys information. The penalty is recovered from the PIO's personal salary. Section 20(2) additionally empowers the Commission to recommend disciplinary action. Hearing opportunity under the proviso is mandatory; due-diligence is a defence.
RTI against a government officer — can they retaliate?
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Legally, no. A public servant cannot retaliate against an RTI applicant — Section 6(2) of the RTI Act bars the PIO from even asking the applicant's motive, let alone taking adverse action based on it. Multiple protective layers exist: Section 20 PIO penalty for obstruction, Whistleblowers Protection Act 2014 for corruption disclosures, Section 8(1)(g) identity protection where disclosure endangers safety, and High Court writ jurisdiction under Article 226. Practical retaliation is rare; this post explains both the law and the signals that tell you whether to worry.
RTI timelines cheat-sheet — every deadline in one table
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Eight statutory clocks govern an RTI from filing to Second Appeal: 30 days (PIO disposal), 48 hours (life-and-liberty), 5 days (§6(3) transfer), 10 days (§11 third-party notice), 30 days (First Appeal filing), 30+15=45 days (FAA disposal), 90 days (Second Appeal filing), Rs 250/day delay penalty. A PIO who misses the 30-day window must supply information free of further charge; an FAA's silence beyond 45 days is directly appealable. Every applicant and every PIO should keep this one-page table taped above their desk.
First Appeal vs Second Appeal — the RTI appeal chain explained
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A First Appeal under Section 19(1) is heard by the First Appellate Authority (FAA) — an officer one rank above the PIO, within the same public authority — within 30 days of the PIO's decision. A Second Appeal under Section 19(3) is heard by the Central or State Information Commission within 90 days of the FAA's decision. The First Appeal is mandatory and intermediate; the Second Appeal is the final administrative remedy. Writ petition to the High Court under Article 226 follows only when the Commission's order is legally flawed.
How DPDP 2025 changed RTI — a before/after guide
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Section 8(1)(j) of the RTI Act, 2005 was substituted by Section 44(3) of the DPDP Act, 2023 — effective from the date the DPDP Rules, 2025 were notified (14 November 2025). The clause now exempts personal information of any person without the earlier “larger public interest” proviso. The override has moved to Section 8(2). Section 20 penalties, Section 7(1) timelines, the Section 11 third-party procedure and appellate architecture are unchanged.
10 Supreme Court rulings every PIO and FAA must know (2026 edition)
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Ten Supreme Court decisions anchor the working PIO's daily toolkit — from Aditya Bandopadhyay's narrowing of the Section 8(1)(e) fiduciary exemption to the 2024 Electoral Bonds judgment's reaffirmation of the citizen's right to know political funding. A PIO or FAA who can cite these from memory drafts a reasoned order that survives First Appeal and the Commission. Each ruling below carries its citation, the Section it turns on, and the practical drafting takeaway.
Why You Should Not Fear Personal-Information RTI Queries — A Guide for Government Officers (2026)
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In one line. When an RTI application targets you personally — your attendance, the files you have signed, your tours, complaints against you — the law protects you with five layers: §8(1)(j) (personal information), §11 (third-party procedure and your right to be heard), §8(1)(g) (danger to life / safety), §8(1)(e) (service-fiduciary for evaluative data), and §8(1)(h) (ongoing investigation). You are not helpless. You are a statutory third party with the right to object.
This guide explains, for each of the four most common hostile questions, what is legally disclosable, what is not, how to respond as a third party under §11, how to guide the PIO, and what the organisation should do institutionally.
How to Write an RTI Application: Ask for Records, Not Answers
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In one line. If you want to know how to write an RTI application that works, write it to request records that exist — not answers, not explanations, not “why.” This single shift fixes most rejections. The rest of this piece shows you how, from someone who has read thousands of replies.
Full archive
For the complete list of posts, see the blog archive.
Related
- Templates. Ready-to-use drafts for applicants, Public Information Officers, and First Appellate Authorities.
- Case law library. Landmark decisions indexed by section.
- Live tracker. Current composition of the Central Information Commission, pendency figures, and recent notifications.
Last reviewed on
19 April 2026
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