Tamil Nadu State Information Commission — contact, appeals

• Phone: 044-25671177
• Address: Block No. 19, Government Farm Village, Panepet, Nandanam, Chennai 600035 (PB 6405)
• Email: [email protected]
• Hours: Mon-Fri 10am-5pm

The Commission is the second-appellate body for RTI in Tamil Nadu: if a Public Information Officer's reply is wrong, incomplete or absent, and the first appeal inside the department has also failed, the second appeal lands here under Section 19(2) of the RTI Act, 2005. The Commission can order disclosure, and it can penalise a PIO under Section 20 — ₹250 for each day of delay, up to ₹25,000 — and recommend disciplinary action. It also hears complaints under Section 18 where no appeal route fits.

• Deadline: within 90 days of the first-appeal decision, or of the date it should have arrived — with “reasonable cause” the Commission can still take a later filing.
• Fee: none. The Commission's own guidance is explicit that no fee is payable for an appeal or a complaint, and none for the first appeal inside the department either.
• Where: online through tnsic.gov.in, which also tracks appeal status, or by post to the Chennai address above.
• Attach: the original application copy, the PIO's reply, the first-appeal filing and decision, and a short statement of grounds. Tamil and English both work; Tamil is the working language of most files.
• Hearings: primarily at Chennai, with notice before the date; the Commission's site publishes cause lists and decisions.

Under the Tamil Nadu RTI rules the application fee is ₹10, payable by Indian Postal Order, demand draft or cash, and photocopies are charged at ₹2 per page. Below Poverty Line applicants pay nothing on attaching proof. If a PIO in Tamil Nadu demands more than the schedule, that is itself a first-appeal ground.

Have your appeal number and filing date at hand, and ask two things: whether your file is complete on the registry's record, and the next listing date. Calls that ask those two questions get answers; calls that narrate the whole case get sympathy.

Helplines often log a complaint without solving it. RTI gives you the file noting + officer name + actual reasoning, and most stuck cases clear within 7-15 days.

1. Status of my second appeal / complaint no. _____ dated _____ as on date.
2. Name + designation of the registrar or officer assigned to my file.
3. Reasons for delay beyond the statutory timeline.
4. Copy of any noting / movement of my file in the past 30 days.
5. Likely date of hearing / decision.

Auto-fill the PIO + your case: Open the RTI Drafter →

Your appeal is registered and numbered, and the Commission's registry screens it for completeness — a missing first-appeal copy is the commonest cause of an early return, so enclose everything on the list above. If the file is complete, the matter is listed before an Information Commissioner, and notice of the hearing goes to you and the PIO. Many cases are decided on written submissions; attend in person or by the mode the notice offers only if you want to argue orally. At the hearing, the Commission typically asks the PIO two questions: why was the information withheld, and under which section? A PIO who cannot answer both precisely usually loses. The order follows in writing, and if it directs disclosure, the deadline in the order binds.

A second appeal under Section 19 needs the application-reply-first-appeal chain behind it. A complaint under Section 18 fits when there is no reply worth appealing — the PIO never responded at all, or demanded an unlawful fee, or refused to accept the application. The remedy you can ask for differs too: an appeal can get you the information with directions; a complaint gets the Commission's inquiry and, where warranted, penalty under Section 20 — ₹250 a day of delay, capped at ₹25,000, plus the possibility of disciplinary action.

Quote your appeal number and filing date in every follow-up. The registry answers specific files quickly and vague ones never — which is the entire point of the five-question template above.

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