How to Publish PIO and FAA Details on a Public Authority Website

The PIO/FAA contact page is the most-visited page on any public authority's RTI section. It is also the page most often out of date — names of officers transferred out, vacant posts, dead phone numbers. This page lays out a template that survives transfers and audits.

• You are designing the RTI section of a public authority website from scratch.
• You are auditing an existing page.
• You are preparing for a CAG / Information Commission inspection.
• Your office has been pulled up by the Commission for outdated PIO / FAA details.

• Section 4(1)(b)(xvi) — names, designations and other particulars of PIO.
• Section 5(1) — designation of PIOs.
• Section 5(2) — APIOs at field level.
• Section 19(1) — FAA is “senior in rank” to PIO; her name must be specifically published for citizens to know where to file the appeal.
• Section 4(4) — dissemination in local language.

For each PIO / APIO / FAA, the page must show:

1. Name in full, in English and the regional language.
2. Designation (Joint Secretary / Director / Under Secretary).
3. Specific role (PIO / APIO / FAA).
4. Office address including room number.
5. Postal address for hard-copy applications.
6. Phone (direct line) and office switchboard.
7. Email — preferably an institutional ID, not a personal one.
8. Area of responsibility if multiple PIOs are designated by subject.
9. Date of designation as PIO/FAA.
10. Office hours for in-person applications.

A four-section structure works for most authorities:

1. Section A — Where to file an RTI. One paragraph describing the postal address, the online portal link, and the working hours.
2. Section B — PIOs. One row per PIO. If multiple, group by subject area.
3. Section C — APIOs. Rows for sub-offices.
4. Section D — FAAs. One row per FAA, with the corresponding PIOs they oversee.
5. Section E — Help and grievance. Email of the nodal officer for any grievance about RTI handling.

• Mobile-friendly — Section 4(3) demands accessibility.
• Screen-reader friendly — proper table semantics.
• Reasonable colour contrast.
• Downloadable PDF version with the same data.
• Regional-language version under Section 4(4)(b).
• Indexable — no robots.txt block.

1. On transfer — within seven working days of the transfer order.
2. On vacancy — show “Office vacant — applications addressed to [next senior]”.
3. Quarterly review — by the nodal officer.
4. Annual sign-off — by the head of office.

The page on the website (built by IT) should render a clean table. The internal data store should be a CSV / JSON that the IT team can update without touching code.

`pio.csv` format (suggested):

`name,designation,role,subject_area,room,address,phone,email,date_designated,language_field`

The website then renders this CSV as an HTML table and a downloadable PDF.

1. Step 1. Pull the latest list of PIOs / APIOs / FAAs from the office order register.
2. Step 2. Verify each row with the officer concerned (phone numbers change).
3. Step 3. Translate names and designations into the regional language.
4. Step 4. Submit to IT for upload.
5. Step 5. Test on mobile.
6. Step 6. Add a “Last updated” date stamp.
7. Step 7. Notify the public authority's web team to update the homepage footer link.

• “PIO” listed without name — generic page.
• Officers transferred out still on the page months later.
• Personal mobile numbers — unprofessional and a privacy risk.
• Non-institutional emails (gmail / yahoo) — should be the office domain.
• No regional-language version — Section 4(4)(b) violation.
• PDF only — should be HTML + downloadable PDF, not PDF alone.
• No room / address — applicants cannot find the office.
• No FAA contact — citizens get stuck after PIO refusal.

• Date of last update of the PIO/FAA page.
• Number of times the page has been updated in the last financial year.
• Reason why the page shows a transferred officer.
• Office orders designating the current PIOs and FAAs.
• The internal SOP that governs the update cycle.
• Logs of all changes to the page in the last twelve months.

A clean SOP avoids these RTIs because the data is already on the page.

If the public authority is on-boarded to rtionline.gov.in (central) or a State portal, the same PIO data must reflect on the portal. Discrepancies between the website page and the portal often confuse applicants and trigger Section 6(3) transfers. The nodal officer should reconcile the two sets quarterly. APIOs at field offices are particularly likely to be missing from the portal even when present on the website. The audit team should sample five field offices each quarter and verify portal sync.

Officers' direct phone numbers and institutional emails are public information under Section 4(1)(b)(xvi) and need no Section 11 third-party notice for publication. Personal mobile numbers and home addresses are different — these are personal information under Section 8(1)(j) and should not be on the page. Where an officer requests anonymisation for safety reasons (e.g. anti-corruption postings), the public authority should record the reasons and use the office switchboard with extension number routing.

Avoid. Use direct office numbers. Officers' personal numbers can be voluntarily shared but should not be the primary contact.

Designate the senior-most officer as interim PIO and reflect on the page. Do not leave the line blank.

As many as required. Section 5(1) lets the authority designate as many as necessary at all administrative units.

Yes. Section 5(1) allows subject-wise PIO designation. The page should clearly indicate the subject coverage.

Yes — link the office order PDF from the page so applicants can verify.

The nodal RTI officer; the IT team executes the upload.

Even a static HTML table works. The point is the data, not the technology.

• The Right to Information Act, 2005 — Section 4, Section 5, Section 19.
• Department of Personnel and Training, rti.gov.in — guidance on Section 4(1)(b) implementation.
• Indian Government Web Directory.
• Central Information Commission, cic.gov.in — illustrative directions for outdated PIO pages.

• Section 4(1)(b) checklist
• RTI record management system
• Annual RTI return
• RTI cell SOP
• RTI compliance audit checklist

Last reviewed: 9 May 2026.