Maharashtra SIC 2026 — contacts and new RTI rules

Last reviewed: 26 August 2026. Contacts verified on the commission's own site; fees read from the Maharashtra Right to Information Rules 2026 notified in the Gazette on 7 July 2026.

• Address: State Information Commission, 13th Floor, New Administrative Building, Mantralaya, Mumbai - 400032
• Phone: 022-22856078
• Email: [email protected]
• Website: sic.maharashtra.gov.in
• Benches: Mumbai headquarters plus regional benches — Pune, Nagpur, Aurangabad, Nashik, Amravati, Konkan and Brihanmumbai

The phone number and email on several older pages — 022-22833434 and [email protected] — no longer match the commission's own contact listing, so treat them as not working as of August 2026 and use the verified set above.

Notified on 7 July 2026 (GAD/12020/4/2025-GAD-DESK-6, superseding the June 2026 version and the older 2005 rules), the new rules reshape both fees and form:

Two practical consequences:

1. Single-subject rule. If you bundle five subjects in one application, the PIO may answer only the first and ask you to file separately for the rest. Draft accordingly — one subject, one application.
2. Appeals are no longer free in Maharashtra. The ₹20 can go as cash against receipt, DD, banker's cheque or a court fee stamp. BPL applicants remain fully exempt from fees under §7(5).
3. Inspection arithmetic changed. Beyond the free first hour, inspection now costs ₹5 per 15 minutes — ₹20 an hour on long files, where the older charging rhythm was gentler. For bulky records, use the free hour to identify the pages that matter, then order only those copies at ₹2 each.

1. PIO reply: 30 days under §7(1), as before.
2. First appeal: within 30 days of the PIO's order or deemed refusal.
3. Second appeal to the commission: within 90 days of the first-appeal order.

The commission's line helps with registry questions — appeal numbers, listing dates, bench venues, video-hearing options. It cannot pull your file forward. Before calling, keep your appeal number and the public authority's name ready, and check the commission's website, which posts circulars, daily boards and decision texts.

Maharashtra handles the country's largest RTI appeal volume, and waiting periods at the commission run long. One legitimate accelerator: an RTI to the commission's own PIO — ₹10 under the same 2026 rules — asking for your second appeal's registration date, listing history and adjournment reasons. That request must itself be answered in 30 days.

Real example. Kashvi Pathak of Pune had a second appeal waiting for a listing through two quarters. A ₹10 RTI to the commission's PIO for the file's movement produced a hearing date the following month — the file, it turned out, had been marked to a bench that had since been reorganized.

Yes — ₹20 under the Maharashtra RTI Rules 2026, notified 7 July 2026. Most states still charge nothing; Maharashtra now does.

₹10 — payable even as a court fee stamp affixed to the form.

Ordinarily no — one subject per application, within about 150 words. Multi-subject requests may be answered only as to the first subject.

022-22856078 at Mantralaya, Mumbai. Email [email protected].

Yes — Pune, Nagpur, Aurangabad, Nashik, Amravati, Konkan and Brihanmumbai benches hear matters regionally.

• Maharashtra State Information Commission — contacts, benches, circulars
• Maharashtra Right to Information Rules 2026, Gazette notification 7 July 2026, published by the commission at its site
• RTI Act 2005, §7(5), §19

• State-wise RTI fees — see which states charge appeal fees
• All state RTI portals in one list
• All helplines and grievance routes
• First Appeal Builder
• The RTI Playbook