Excessive fee calculation — §7(3) — CIC

A PIO demanding unjustified copy-fees treated as constructive refusal; applicant may appeal under §19. Inflated copy-fees under §7(3) = constructive refusal;.

Inflated copy-fees under §7(3) = constructive refusal; directly appealable under §19(1).

A PIO demanding unjustified copy-fees treated as constructive refusal; applicant may appeal under §19.

When a PIO intimates a copy-fee that is grossly disproportionate to the reasonable photocopy cost — e.g., Rs 500 per page — that amounts to a constructive refusal. The applicant may seek review under §7(3) proviso or directly file a First Appeal under §19(1) treating the inflated fee as a de facto denial.

copy fees, §7(3), CIC, constructive refusal

These rulings have the closest editorial ratio to this case — computed by tf-idf cosine similarity over ratio, keywords and Act sections. Useful starting points if you are researching the same point of law.

• PIO silence as deemed refusal — Bombay HC (HC-BOM 2014)
• §11 third-party cost-bearing — CIC (CIC 2019)
• Board-examination records — Delhi HC (HC-DEL 2019)
• §7(3) fee-intimation procedure — SC clarity (SC 2021)
• Inspection charges — Delhi HC (HC-DEL 2014)

• All Central Information Commission rulings in the corpus
• All RTI cases turning on §7
• Full case-law search
• Case-Law Database — overview
• PIO RTI Reply Guide
• The RTI Act, 2005 — annotated

Editorial summary · last reviewed 21 April 2026.