Methodology — how RTI Wiki sources, verifies, and publishes

We use sources in this order of preference:

1. Statutes — RTI Act 2005, state RTI rules, related Acts (DPDP, CrPC, CCS Pension Rules, etc.)
2. Constitutional bodies — Supreme Court, High Court, CIC, SIC orders + judgments
3. Government circulars — DoPT Master Circular, ministry OMs, CVC manuals
4. Official portals — sansad.in, rsdoc.nic.in, lsdoc.nic.in, eci.gov.in, prsindia.org datasets, gov ministry portals
5. Authoritative secondary — PRS India, Common Cause, SNS reports, MyNeta, ADR
6. News organisations — The Hindu, The Wire, Caravan, LiveLaw, Bar & Bench (specific stories cited)

We do not use sources of unverified provenance (random forums, undated screenshots, anonymous tipoffs).

Live structured data is mirrored from authoritative APIs:

Source URL is preserved for every record. Every CSV download bears a “source” header.

Every editorial article follows the 14-block citizen-first format:

1. Direct-answer block (≤50 words)
2. Hero image
3. DPDP banner (cookie compliance)
4. Lead paragraph
5. Legal framework (collapsible — citizens skip; lawyers expand)
6. Key principles (5-7 bullets)
7. Decision framework (5-7 numbered steps)
8. Template (copy-ready text in `<code>` block)
9. Illustrations (subject- or case-wise)
10. Case-law anchors (2-4 citations with takeaway)
11. Common mistakes (5-6 bullets)
12. Pro tips (4-5 bullets)
13. FAQs (3-5 Q&A)
14. Conclusion + Related reading + Sources + Last-reviewed date + tags

We use LLMs (Anthropic Claude, Groq, OpenAI) for:

• AI Drafter outputs — labelled “AI-drafted”
• Hindi summary generation — labelled “Beta translation”
• Outcome Predictor reasoning — labelled “AI-suggested”
• PIO Reply Checker analysis — labelled “AI-suggested”

We do NOT use LLMs to author the 700+ editorial articles or the case-law summaries without human verification of every fact.

Each article passes through:

1. Author — drafts + cites
2. Editor — independent review against sources
3. Auto-checker — CMS scans for unlinked-citation, broken-link, missing-source
4. Publication — green Verified badge applied
5. Re-review cycle — 12 months evergreen, 3 months time-sensitive

When a CIC/SC/HC ruling we cite is reversed or modified, we update the article within 14 days of becoming aware.

Editorial content: CC-BY 4.0 with attribution. Datasets: CC-BY 4.0. Tools: free use, no payment, no API rate limit other than fair use.

Want to reproduce our state-portal status table? CIC backlog stats? Bill counts? Every claim has a Source line at the bottom of its article. Click through. If you find a discrepancy, file a correction.

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