How to Set Up an RTI Cell in a Public Authority: SOP, Registers, Workflow and Templates

This guide complements the Public Authority RTI Compliance Guide and the PIO RTI Reply Guide. It is the implementation playbook for institutions that have decided to centralise RTI handling rather than leave it scattered across branches.

• Citizens get one address to file at, one email to write to, and one phone to call. This reduces transferred and lost applications.
• Deadlines are tracked in one place. The 30-day clock under Section 7(1) does not get lost between branches.
• Fee receipts, refunds and Section 7(3) intimations are accounted for in one register, removing audit risk.
• Annual return data is generated as a by-product of normal work, not assembled in panic at year-end.
• Repeat applicants and pattern requests are recognised and handled uniformly across the public authority.

A workable RTI Cell at a medium-size public authority has:

• Nodal officer at Director or Deputy Secretary level, reporting to the Head of Office.
• One or more PIOs designated under Section 5(1).
• One or more APIOs for receipt and acknowledgment under Section 5(2).
• One register clerk for diary, transfer, fee and appeal registers.
• One records assistant with reading-room access to retrieve files.
• An IT contact for the online application portal and the email address.

A smaller authority may double-hat the nodal officer as PIO, but the register clerk and the records assistant should be different persons from the deciding PIO so that the audit trail stays clean.

The Cell should accept RTI applications through every legal channel:

• In person at a public-facing desk on every working day in working hours, with a stamped acknowledgment.
• By post, registered or speed.
• By electronic mail at a published rti@[domain] address.
• Through the online portal, where the Central Government, the State or the public authority has notified one. For Central public authorities, the prescribed portal is https://rtionline.gov.in.

The receipt desk records date and time of receipt and gives the applicant a tear-off receipt slip with the diary number. This single act protects the applicant's clock and the institution's audit trail.

The diary is the master record. Every application is entered into the diary the same day it is received.

A separate register records every Section 6(3) transfer. The fields:

• Diary number of the original application.
• Date of receipt.
• Receiving public authority.
• Date of transfer (must be within five days).
• Mode of transfer (post or email with delivery report).
• Acknowledgment received from receiving authority.
• Notice to applicant date.

A transfer that is older than five days is itself a Section 7(2) deemed refusal on the transferred items unless reasons are recorded.

Allocation rules should be written, not improvised. A short allocation matrix prevents inter-branch ping-pong:

The Nodal Officer signs off the matrix annually and any time a PIO or FAA is changed.

Every application carries a built-in 30-day clock. The Cell runs three internal reminders:

1. Day 7 reminder. Acknowledgment despatched, file located, dealing branch confirms receipt.
2. Day 20 reminder. Draft reply expected on the PIO's desk; Cell flags any item still pending.
3. Day 28 reminder. Final reply approved and signed, despatched on day 29 or 30.

The reminder system is best implemented in a small spreadsheet or a database with daily email digests to PIOs and the Nodal Officer. Manual diary marking works for smaller offices.

The Cell maintains a fee register that ties to the public authority's main accounts. Fields:

• Diary number.
• Application fee paid.
• Section 7(3) additional fee intimated, amount and date.
• Date of receipt of additional fee.
• Refund, where issued under Section 7(6) for delayed reply.
• Reconciliation note from accounts.

A monthly reconciliation memo to the accounts branch closes the loop.

The first-appeal register is maintained for FAA work:

The Information Commission compliance register tracks every order received from the Central or State Information Commission against this public authority. It records the case number, the operative directions, the compliance officer, the compliance due date and the date of compliance report sent to the Commission. This register is the first thing a Commission asks for in a non-compliance hearing.

The annual return is assembled from the registers above. The data flow:

• Applications received, transferred, decided, pending: from diary and transfer registers.
• Section-wise refusals: from diary outcome codes filtered by Section 8 clause.
• Fee collected: from fee register, reconciled with accounts.
• First appeals: from first-appeal register, with outcome breakdown.
• Second appeals and complaints: from CIC and SIC compliance register.
• Penalty notices received and outcomes: from disciplinary register.

The Cell's quarterly reconciliation memo means the annual return is a half-day exercise rather than a panicked April rush.

The Nodal Officer convenes a 30-minute monthly review on the first working day of each month. The checklist:

1. Total receipts in the previous month and year-to-date.
2. Replies issued within 30 days as a percentage.
3. Section 8 refusals: clause-wise count and the proportion that record reasons.
4. Section 6(3) transfers: count and any older than five days.
5. Section 7(3) fee intimations and pending receipts.
6. First-appeal outcomes; remand and “allowed” rates.
7. Second appeals and CIC and SIC notices received.
8. Section 4 disclosure update tracker for the month.
9. Training and orientation events for new PIOs.
10. Audit observations from internal audit on RTI work.
11. Any pattern requests or coordinated mass filings noted.
12. Open action items from the previous month.

The minutes go to the Head of Office and are filed in the RTI Cell's central register.

Subject: Acknowledgment of your RTI application: Diary No. [____]

Dear [Applicant name],

We acknowledge receipt of your RTI application dated [date], received
on [date] in this office and entered as Diary No. [____].

The application has been allocated to the Public Information Officer
(PIO), [Name, Designation, Branch], for decision under the Right to
Information Act, 2005. You will receive the reply at the address
mentioned in your application within the statutory period.

For any clarification, please reply to this email or write to the
RTI Cell, [Name of Public Authority], [Address], quoting the diary
number above.

Regards,
RTI Cell, [Name of Public Authority]

Subject: RTI Diary No. [____] allocated to [Branch]

Dear [Branch Head],

The attached RTI application is allocated to your branch for decision.

Diary No.: [____]
Statutory due date (Section 7(1)): [____]
Items: [number]
Special flags: [Section 6(3) check / Section 11 third-party / Section
7(3) additional fee / 48-hour life and liberty]

Please open a file noting today, identify the records, and have a draft
reply with the PIO by Day 20 ([____]). The RTI Cell will send a Day 7
and Day 20 reminder.

Regards,
Nodal Officer, RTI Cell

Subject: Transfer of RTI application under Section 6(3): Diary No. [____]

To,
The Public Information Officer
[Receiving public authority]
[Address]

Sir / Madam,

Please find enclosed an RTI application dated [date] from
[applicant name] received in this office on [date]. The information
sought, in whole / in part [strike out as applicable], pertains to
records held by your public authority. The application, in respect of
the items listed below, is therefore transferred under Section 6(3) of
the RTI Act, 2005.

Items transferred: [list]
Application fee paid here: Rs [____] (proof of fee enclosed)
Statutory time-limit on the transferred items begins from your date
of receipt.

A copy of this transfer letter is sent to the applicant.

Yours faithfully,
PIO, [Sending Public Authority]

See Template 4 in the PIO guide.

Subject: URGENT: Day 28: RTI Diary No. [____]

Dear [Branch Head],

The 30-day deadline for the captioned RTI application falls on [date].
The reply has not yet been received in the RTI Cell. Please ensure the
draft reply is signed by the PIO today and despatched by tomorrow.

A delayed reply will attract Section 7(6) (free supply) and may invite
Section 20 penalty proceedings against the PIO at the appellate stage.

Regards,
Nodal Officer, RTI Cell

Subject: First Appeal No. [____]: hearing notice

Dear [Appellant name and PIO],

Reference: First Appeal dated [____] arising from the order of the
PIO on RTI Diary No. [____].

The First Appellate Authority will hear the appeal as below:

Date: [____]
Time: [____]
Mode: [In person at address / video conference at link]
Documents to be furnished by: [Date: three days before hearing]

Both parties may file written submissions. The appeal will otherwise
be decided on record.

Regards,
Secretary to FAA

Subject: Annual return for the year [____]: data request

Dear PIOs,

Please furnish the following data for your branch for the period
[1 April YYYY] to [31 March YYYY]:

1. Applications received
2. Applications transferred under Section 6(3)
3. Applications decided in 30 days
4. Applications decided after 30 days
5. Section 8 refusals: clause-wise count
6. Fee collected (Rs)
7. First appeals filed
8. First-appeal outcomes
9. Second-appeal notices received
10. Penalty proceedings, if any

The data is required by [date]. Please use the attached template.

Regards,
Nodal Officer, RTI Cell

No. The Cell receives, allocates, tracks, accounts, follows up and reports. The PIO decides. Mixing the two roles weakens the file noting and the audit trail.

Under the Head of Office, with administrative reporting to the Nodal Officer at Director or Deputy Secretary level. The Cell should not sit under any single substantive branch (procurement, HR, vigilance) because every branch is equally accountable.

For any public authority receiving more than ten applications a month, electronic registers are recommended. The format does not matter; searchability, deadline alerts and exportable annual-return data do.

A 30-day onboarding for newly designated officers, followed by an annual half-day refresher. The Department of Personnel and Training and the State Administrative Training Institutes run regular RTI capsule courses.

RTI registers themselves are A or B class records depending on the public authority's master schedule, typically retained for at least 10 years. The application file is retained for at least 10 years from the date of final disposal, including any second-appeal proceedings.

Yes, and many public authorities have started doing so. Anonymised summaries discourage repeat applications on the same subject and enrich the Section 4 disclosure base.

• Public Authority RTI Compliance Guide
• PIO RTI Reply Guide
• FAA guide
• Section 4 deep-dive
• Section 7 deep-dive
• Section 19 deep-dive
• Guide for RTI applicants
• Sample RTI applications

• Right to Information Act, 2005, Sections 4, 5, 6, 7, 11, 19, 25
• Central RTI (Regulation of Fee and Cost) Rules, 2012
• Department of Personnel and Training, RTI Master Circular
• Central Information Commission annual reports, available on https://cic.gov.in
• National e-Governance Division advisories on https://rtionline.gov.in

Last reviewed: 9 May 2026. Sources verified: statutory references and operational templates cross-checked on 9 May 2026.