Illegal construction RTI — plan, notices, paper trail

Unauthorised construction survives on one thing: nobody putting the municipality's own paper on the table. A sanction file either exists or it does not; an occupancy certificate was either issued or it was not; a complaint was either acted on or parked. Each of those is a record, each record is reachable by RTI, and each reply is signed by an officer. That is why the RTI precedes the courtroom.

• Sanctioned plans are public records — a building permission is granted under a municipal building bylaw, and the file — drawings, conditions, deviations noted — belongs to the authority
• Occupancy and completion certificates are granted or refused in writing; the status of the application is a fact the authority must state
• Your complaint's file — every complaint to a municipal body creates a file: receipt, inspection note, engineer's remark, notice issued or deferred. Asking for the file converts silence into a documented default
• The reply binds — a PIO's written statement that no sanction exists, or that no notice was issued, is evidence in every later forum

To:
The Public Information Officer,
[Municipal Corporation / Council / Development Authority],
[City]

Subject: Application under Section 6, RTI Act, 2005

Sir/Madam, kindly provide:

1. A copy of the sanctioned building plan and permission for the
   property at [full address], permission no. ___ if available, or
   confirmation that no building permission exists for the structure.
2. The status of the occupancy certificate / completion certificate
   application for the said property.
3. The file on complaint no. ___ dated ___ regarding unauthorised
   construction at the said property: inspection notes, the officer
   deputed, and copies of any notices issued under the municipal
   building bylaws.
4. The action taken on the notices referred to above, with dates.
5. The name and designation of the officer responsible for building
   rule enforcement in the ward.

Fee of Rs 10 enclosed [IPO / as per the state schedule].

Yours faithfully,
[Name, address, phone, email]

Address it to the body that sanctioned or should have sanctioned the work — corporation, council, development authority, or the panchayat for village sites. The wrong address costs two weeks in a Section 6(3) transfer.

• No sanction exists — the reply itself anchors the demolition-or-regularisation case; take it to the ward office, the Municipal Commissioner's grievance cell, and if nothing moves, the High Court
• A notice exists but was never enforced — ask for the enforcement file by a second RTI; unexecuted notices are the classic municipal failure
• Deviation beyond the sanctioned plan — the comparison between sanction drawing and the built structure is for the court's commissioner, not the PIO; the RTI supplies the drawing
• The 30-day clock — no reply or a refusal, and the first appeal follows within 30 days; the second appeal to the State Information Commission within 90 of the FAA's order

• Omitting the full property identifier — door number, plot or survey number, ward. A PIO who cannot locate the property cannot answer
• Asking the municipality to stop the construction — RTI fetches records; the stopping is a complaint, a writ, or both, fed by the records
• Filing one omnibus RTI for the whole neighbourhood — one property, one application, clean replies
• Forgetting the complaint number — the strongest ask on the list is the file on your own registered complaint

• Olga Tellis v. Bombay Municipal Corporation (Supreme Court, 1985) — even where demolition power exists, due process governs its exercise; procedure is not the obstacle to enforcement, it is the guarantee
• CBSE v. Aditya Bandopadhyay (Supreme Court, 2011) — public records held by public authorities are information; exemptions are the exception, not the default

Yes — building permissions are public records held by the authority, and third parties obtain them routinely. Personal privacy under Section 8(1)(j) does not cover a building sanction.

Ask for the copy of the sanctioned plan and the permission number. If it exists, the PIO supplies it; if it does not, the PIO says so in writing.

Take the RTI replies — no notice, or unexecuted notice — to the High Court in a writ for enforcement. Chronic inaction with the paper trail attached is exactly what writs are for.

Not by itself. It produces the records that the complaint, the notice-appeal and the writ then act on.

• Encroachment complaint RTI
• Layout approval RTI
• Co-operative housing society RTI
• File RTI online — the 12-step guide
• RTI — 25 questions answered
• The RTI Playbook book

• Right to Information Act, 2005 — Sections 6, 7, 19
• Olga Tellis v. Bombay Municipal Corporation, (1985) 3 SCC 545
• CBSE v. Aditya Bandopadhyay, (2011) 8 SCC 497

Last reviewed: 26 August 2026. The statutory and judgment anchors were re-verified; an unverifiable 2021 Bombay High Court citation carried by the old page has been removed.