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 +{{htmlmetatags>metatag-title=(Hostel Fees Unexplained? RTI for the Breakdown - RTI Wiki)&metatag-description=(Hostel fee hiked without a breakup? File RTI Section 6 to any IIT, NIT or university and get mess, caution-money and HMC minute records in 30 days.)&metatag-keywords=(hostel fees RTI, hostel mess charges RTI, IIT NIT hostel fees, university hostel fees breakdown, caution money refund RTI, UGC hostel fee disclosure, hostel management committee RTI)&metatag-robots=(index,follow)&metatag-og:title=(Hostel Fees Unexplained? RTI for the Breakdown - RTI Wiki)&metatag-og:description=(Hostel fee hiked without a breakup? File RTI Section 6 to any IIT, NIT or university and get mess, caution-money and HMC minute records in 30 days.)&metatag-og:type=(article)}}
  
 +====== Hostel Fees Unexplained? RTI for the Full Breakdown ======
 +
 +{{:social:auto:rti-for-hostel-fees-breakdown.png?direct&1200 |RTI for hostel fees breakdown — RTI Wiki}}
 +
 +
 +<WRAP center round info 95%>
 +**Quick Reply:** Hostel fee hiked without a breakup? File RTI Section 6 to any IIT, NIT or university and get mess, caution-money and HMC minute records in 30 days.
 +</WRAP>
 +
 +<WRAP info>**Direct answer in 30 seconds.** File one RTI to the **Central Public Information Officer (CPIO) — the Registrar** — of your IIT, NIT, IIM, IIIT or Central University through **rtionline.gov.in** for Rs.10, or to the Registrar of a State university through your State RTI portal. Ask for the head-wise hostel fee structure, Hostel Management Committee minutes, mess audit report, and caution-money refund register. Reply is due in **30 days**.</WRAP>
 +
 +===== The story most citizens recognise =====
 +
 +Ananya is a second-year B.Tech student at a centrally-funded NIT in a tier-2 state capital. At the start of her first year she paid Rs.28,000 as the annual hostel fee — rent, mess, utilities, caution money and service charges rolled into one figure on a single fee receipt. Halfway through her third semester a one-line notice appears on the notice board: "Hostel fee revised to Rs.39,500 with effect from this semester, as approved by HMC." No breakup. No per-meal mess calculation. No utility figures. No copy of the HMC minutes.
 +
 +The mess component alone has jumped by Rs.4,800, but the dal-and-rice quality has, if anything, gotten thinner. When her batchmate asked the warden for the calculation, the answer was "it is decided by the Committee, not by me." When she vacated the hostel for a six-month internship, her Rs.7,500 caution money was not refunded even 75 days later. The accounts section said "it is pending audit."
 +
 +Ananya is not alone. In 2023, RTI queries revealed that **Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU) alone held Rs.1.22 crore in unrefunded caution money** — library deposit Rs.68.51 lakh, **hostel deposit Rs.40.36 lakh** of which only Rs.12.38 lakh had been refunded in three years, and lab deposit Rs.4.5 lakh. That figure surfaced only because someone filed RTI. A hostel is a small institution with a real profit-and-loss account, and the Right to Information Act, 2005 turns its opaque numbers into a paper trail any student or parent can read.
 +
 +===== What the hostel-fee RTI right actually is =====
 +
 +Every IIT, NIT, IIM, IIIT and Central or State University is a **public authority** under **Section 2(h) of the RTI Act, 2005** — a body established or constituted by law and substantially financed by government. That single fact is what makes hostel fees disclosable. A private college does not fall under the RTI Act in the same way; a publicly-funded institute does.
 +
 +Two layers of disclosure apply:
 +
 +**Section 4(1)(b) — proactive disclosure.** Every public authority must publish, on its own, its organisation, functions, duties, the rules that govern it, its budget and its expenditure. Hostel-fee heads, the power to "fix, demand and receive fees," and the power to "establish, maintain and manage halls and hostels" are listed as disclosed functions in institute RTI manuals — for example, the **NIT Tiruchirappalli RTI Manual 2023**, whose CPIO is the Registrar (i/c). **IIT Kanpur** publishes a "Hall Management — Rules, Procedures and Guidelines Manual" under Students' Affairs as part of its Section 4(1)(b) disclosure, with third-party audit reports of suo-motu disclosure published every year from FY 2018-19 through 2024-25. In plain terms: a lot of what you want is already supposed to be on the institute website. If it is not, your RTI forces compliance.
 +
 +**Section 6(1) — on request.** Whatever is not proactive, you can ask for in a written application to the CPIO. The reply is mandatory within **30 days** under Section 7(1) (48 hours where life or liberty is at stake, which fee queries are not). Under **Section 7(6)**, if the reply is delayed beyond the limit, the information must be supplied **free of charge**. One boundary: **Section 8(1)(j)** protects personal and third-party information — the individual mess bill of another named student, or another student's caution-money entry, is third-party data and can be withheld. But **aggregate** collection, expenditure, audit, minutes and refund registers are not personal information; they are disclosable.
 +
 +<WRAP tip>**Why this matters for your RTI.** Frame every ask as an **aggregate, dated record** — "the head-wise fee structure for Hostel Block C for the last two academic years," not "what did my batchmate pay." Aggregate records defeat the Section 8(1)(j) exemption; individual records trigger it.</WRAP>
 +
 +===== How the hostel-fee flow works — so you know what to ask for =====
 +
 +A hostel fee at a technical institute is usually a bundle of six heads:
 +
 +  - **Rent / accommodation charge** — for the room and building upkeep.
 +  - **Mess charge** — the largest variable head; collected in advance, settled against actual food-grain, fuel and manpower costs.
 +  - **Utilities** — electricity, water, internet, sometimes a separate electricity surcharge.
 +  - **Caution money / refundable deposit** — a one-time refundable sum held by the institute against damages.
 +  - **Repair and maintenance** — recurring annual maintenance of the block.
 +  - **Service charge** — housekeeping, security, garden, waste.
 +
 +The decision body is the **Hostel Management Committee (HMC)** — typically the warden, the dean of students, the accounts officer and student representatives. The HMC recommends the fee, and the **Board of Governors (BoG)** or the **Finance Committee** approves it. The mess account is supposed to be audited annually — collection against expenditure, variance carried forward or refunded as mess saving. Caution money sits in a separate ledger and is refundable on vacating, after a no-dues certificate.
 +
 +This structure tells you exactly which documents exist: the **fee-head sheet**, the **HMC minutes**, the **mess audit report**, the **caution-money refund register**, the **utility-bill summary**, and the **institute audit observations**. Each of those is a named record you can demand.
 +
 +===== The 2026 update you must know about =====
 +
 +The decisive 2026-relevant rule is the **UGC (Redressal of Grievances of Students) Regulations, 2023** — Notification **F.1-13/2022 (CPP-II), dated 11 April 2023**, issued under Section 26(1)(g) of the UGC Act 1956, which **supersedes the 2019 Regulations** and is the current binding framework. Regulation 4 makes it **mandatory for every institution to publish its prospectus on its website at least 60 days before admission**, and that prospectus must contain:
 +
 +  - **Reg 4(1)(e)** — each component of fee, deposits and other charges payable, with terms of payment.
 +  - **Reg 4(1)(f)** — rules for fines, minimum and maximum.
 +  - **Reg 4(1)(g)** — the percentage of tuition fee and other charges refundable on withdrawal, with timeline and manner.
 +  - **Reg 4(1)(i)** — physical and academic infrastructure, **including hostel accommodation and its fee**.
 +
 +Regulation 3 defines "grievance" to include: demand of money in excess of declared policy, delay or denial of a fee refund, and failure to provide student amenities such as hostel as set out in the prospectus. The redressal tier for hostel and common-facility grievances is the **Institutional Students' Grievance Redressal Committee (ISGRC)**, with appeal to the **Ombudsperson**.
 +
 +What this means for your RTI is sharp: if your institute has not published the hostel-fee breakup 60 days before admission, it is already in breach of a UGC Regulation. Your RTI does not just ask for the data — it documents the breach. You can escalate the same grievance in parallel on the **UGC e-Samadhaan portal (samadhaan.ugc.ac.in)**, whose toll-free 24x7 helpline is **1800-111-656**, and on **CPGRAMS (pgportal.gov.in)** for Ministry of Education escalation. Note: the older article's reference to "UGC Regulations on Fees and Charges" is not a real standalone regulation; the real, citable instrument is the 2023 Redressal Regulations above.
 +
 +===== Step-by-step: filing your hostel-fee RTI =====
 +
 +**Step 1 — Identify the public authority and the PIO.**
 +  - **IITs, NITs, IIMs, IIITs, Central Universities** — these are Central Government public authorities. The CPIO is almost always the **Registrar** or **Deputy Registrar (Academic/Students)**. File through the **Central RTI portal rtionline.gov.in**; state-portal applications are returned. The registration number will look like **DOPTR/E/2026/XXXXX**.
 +  - **State universities** — file through your **State RTI portal** (each state has its own) and address the **Registrar or Dean of Students' Welfare**.
 +
 +**Step 2 — Frame precise, dated, aggregate questions.** Six strong sample questions:
 +
 +  - "Furnish the head-wise hostel fee structure for [Hostel Block name/number] for the current academic year and the preceding two years, broken up under rent, mess, utilities, caution money, repair and maintenance, and service charges."
 +  - "Furnish certified copies of the Hostel Management Committee meeting minutes in which each fee revision during the last two academic years was approved, with the date of approval and the BoG/Finance Committee ratification."
 +  - "Furnish the mess-account audit report for the last 12 months for [Hostel Block], showing total mess collection, total expenditure on food-grain, fuel and manpower, and the variance carried forward or refunded."
 +  - "Furnish the caution-money refund register entries for students who vacated [Hostel Block] in the last 12 months, showing date of vacation, amount held, date of refund, and pending cases with reason for delay."
 +  - "Furnish the utility-bill payment summary for [Hostel Block] for the last 12 months — electricity, water and internet — with bill numbers and amounts."
 +  - "Furnish the institute internal audit and CAG audit observations, if any, referring to the hostel block or the mess account for the last audited financial year."
 +
 +**Step 3 — Pay the right fee.** Under the **RTI (Regulation of Fee and Cost) Rules, 2005**, the Central application fee is **Rs.10**. **BPL applicants are exempt** on producing a BPL certificate. Copying charges are **Rs.2 per page** for A4/A3, actual cost for larger paper, **Rs.50 per diskette** for electronic supply, and inspection is **free for the first hour and Rs.5 per subsequent hour**. On rtionline.gov.in you can pay by SBI Internet banking, ATM-debit, credit/debit cards and **UPI**. Offline, pay by Indian Postal Order or Demand Draft favouring the Accounts Officer of the institute.
 +
 +**Step 4 — Submit and keep proof.** File online and save the registration number, or send by registered post and keep the acknowledgement, or file by hand and take a stamped receiving copy. The text limit on rtionline.gov.in is 3,000 characters; anything longer goes as a PDF attachment up to 1 MB.
 +
 +**Step 5 — Wait 30 days.** The CPIO must reply within 30 days. If the reply is partial or missing, you have a built-in escalation ladder. Use the **AI RTI draft app** at https://righttoinformation.wiki/tools/ai-rti-draft-app.html to generate a clean Section 6(1) application, and the **first-appeal app** at https://righttoinformation.wiki/tools/first-appeal-app.html to draft the First Appeal without re-typing the original.
 +
 +===== Documents to attach =====
 +
 +  - **Fee receipts** for the years you are querying — proof you paid, and the exact heads charged.
 +  - **Hostel allotment letter** — shows your block, room and dates of residence.
 +  - **No-dues certificate** or vacation acknowledgement — if you are asking about caution-money refund.
 +  - **BPL certificate** — if you are claiming the fee exemption.
 +  - **Printout of the institute prospectus** (or screenshot with date) — to show what was published versus what was charged, for the UGC Reg 4 comparison.
 +  - **Indian Postal Order / online payment receipt** for Rs.10.
 +
 +===== Common mistakes =====
 +
 +  - **Asking the warden directly.** The warden is an academic officer, not the CPIO. Route every RTI to the **CPIO (Registrar)**; addressing it to the warden causes delay or rejection. Cite **Section 6(1)** — the application goes to the CPIO, not to the person whose data you want.
 +  - **Not naming the hostel block.** Each block has its own HMC and its own mess account. "Hostel fee details" gets you a generic brochure; "Hostel Block C, mess audit for FY 2025-26" gets you the specific ledger.
 +  - **Asking for another student's individual bill.** That is third-party personal information under **Section 8(1)(j)** and will be denied. Ask for **aggregate** collection and expenditure instead.
 +  - **Mixing academic fees with hostel fees.** Keep one RTI for hostel, a separate one for tuition. Mixing them lets the PIO answer the easy half and skip the hard half.
 +  - **Forgetting the audit-report ask.** The mess audit and the institute/CAG audit observations are the strongest documents — they are the ones that show whether the hike is justified. Skipping them is the biggest missed opportunity.
 +  - **Missing the 30-day First Appeal window.** Under **Section 19(1)** you must file the First Appeal to the FAA within 30 days of the reply deadline. Miss it and the ladder collapses.
 +
 +===== The escalation ladder if you get no answer =====
 +
 +RTI works because it has a built-in ladder. A partial or missing reply is not the end — it is the start of the next step.
 +
 +  - **First Appeal (Section 19(1)).** If no reply comes within 30 days, or the reply is partial, file a First Appeal with the **First Appellate Authority (FAA)** in the same institute — usually the **Registrar** or **Director**. Do this within **30 days** of the reply deadline. The FAA must decide within 30 days, extendable to 45. There is **no fee** for a First Appeal. In hostel-fee cases the FAA is often the same Registrar who oversees the CPIO, so a well-drafted appeal that names the missing documents (HMC minutes, mess audit) usually produces them.
 +  - **Second Appeal (Section 19(3)).** If the FAA also fails, file a Second Appeal with the **Central Information Commission** at **cic.gov.in** for Central institutes, or your **State Information Commission** for state universities, within **90 days** of the FAA order. There is no fee for a second appeal to the CIC.
 +  - **Complaint under Section 18.** If the CPIO never replied at all or refused to accept the application, you can file a direct complaint to the Information Commission, which can order disclosure and even penalise the PIO under Section 20.
 +  - **Parallel UGC e-Samadhaan grievance.** The fee-refund and non-disclosure aspects are also "grievances" under the **UGC Redressal Regulations, 2023**. File the same facts on **samadhaan.ugc.ac.in** (helpline 1800-111-656). The ISGRC must acknowledge and the Ombudsperson can order refund. RTI gets you the records; e-Samadhaan gets you the refund. Run both in parallel.
 +  - **CPGRAMS escalation.** If the institute is a Central institute and the issue is systemic — say, a blanket mid-session hike across all hostels — escalate on **pgportal.gov.in** to the Ministry of Education.
 +
 +<WRAP note>**Plain explainer.** The First Appellate Authority is a senior officer in the same institute who reviews the CPIO's decision. The Information Commission is an independent body that can order disclosure and penalise a CPIO who wrongly withholds information. UGC e-Samadhaan is a separate, non-RTI route that targets the refund itself rather than the records.</WRAP>
 +
 +===== Pro tips =====
 +
 +  - **Check the institute website first.** Before filing, search the institute site for its RTI Manual and Section 4(1)(b) disclosure. NIT Trichy and IIT Kanpur already publish their hostel-management manuals and audit reports. If yours does too, your RTI becomes a request for what is missing — sharper and harder to refuse.
 +  - **Quote the UGC Regulation number.** Citing "Reg 4(1)(e) of the UGC Redressal Regulations, 2023, Notification F.1-13/2022 (CPP-II), 11 April 2023" tells the CPIO you know the rule is binding and current, not a vague aspiration.
 +  - **Ask for the HMC minutes by date.** "The HMC meeting minutes of [date]" is a named record the PIO must locate or admit does not exist. "All HMC minutes" lets them send a single generic page.
 +  - **Pair with the student senate.** Student representatives often hold copies of the HMC minutes and the mess audit that the accounts section is slow to release. Corroborate the RTI reply against what the senate already has — discrepancies are gold for the First Appeal.
 +  - **Track the mess variance over two years.** A single year's audit can look reasonable; a two-year trend that shows a growing "mess saving" surplus — money collected from students and not spent on food — is the document that breaks an unjustified mess hike.
 +  - **Use the SPPU precedent.** The RTI-revealed Rs.1.22 crore unrefunded caution money at Savitribai Phule Pune University is a concrete, citable example of why the caution-money refund register matters. Mentioning it in your appeal shows the Commission the pattern you are probing.
 +
 +===== Real-life example =====
 +
 +<WRAP center round box>
 +**Ananya R., second-year B.Tech, NIT [tier-2 state capital].**
 +
 +In August 2025 Ananya's annual hostel fee was Rs.28,000. In January 2026 a one-line notice raised it to Rs.39,500 — a **41 percent mid-session hike** — with no breakup. The mess component alone rose Rs.4,800. She vacated the hostel in May 2026 for an internship; her Rs.7,500 caution money was still unpaid 75 days later.
 +
 +On 20 June 2026 she filed a single RTI through **rtionline.gov.in** to the **CPIO (Registrar)** of her NIT, paying **Rs.10 by UPI**. She asked for: the head-wise fee structure for her block for the last two years; the HMC minutes that approved the hike; the mess audit report for the last 12 months; the caution-money refund register; and the utility-bill summary. Registration number: **DOPTR/E/2026/00xxxxx**.
 +
 +**Outcome path.** Day 30 — a partial reply arrived with the fee-head sheet but no HMC minutes and no mess audit. On Day 33 she filed a **First Appeal under Section 19(1)** to the FAA (the Registrar), who ordered the CPIO to furnish the minutes and the audit within 15 days. In parallel she filed a grievance on **UGC e-Samadhaan (samadhaan.ugc.ac.in)** citing the breach of Reg 4(1)(e) and 4(1)(i). The mess audit showed a **Rs.3.1 lakh surplus** carried forward as "mess saving" — money collected from students and not spent on food. Her caution money was refunded on Day 52, with interest. Total cost of the exercise: **Rs.10 and one First Appeal**. Figures are illustrative of the documented RTI route, not a named real person.
 +</WRAP>
 +
 +===== Sample RTI letter =====
 +
 +<code>
 +To,
 +The Central Public Information Officer (CPIO),
 +[Name of Institute / University],
 +[Address]
 +
 +Sub: Application under Section 6(1) of the RTI Act, 2005 —
 +     Hostel fee breakdown for [Hostel Block name], [Academic Year].
 +
 +Sir/Madam,
 +
 +I, [Name], Roll No. [_____], resident of [Hostel Block, Room No.],
 +programme [_____], hereby seek the following information under
 +Section 6(1) of the Right to Information Act, 2005:
 +
 +1. The head-wise hostel fee structure for [Hostel Block] for the
 +   current academic year and the preceding two years, broken up
 +   under rent, mess, utilities, caution money, repair and
 +   maintenance, and service charges.
 +
 +2. Certified copies of the Hostel Management Committee meeting
 +   minutes in which each fee revision during the last two academic
 +   years was approved, with date of approval and the Board of
 +   Governors / Finance Committee ratification, if any.
 +
 +3. The mess-account audit report for the last 12 months for
 +   [Hostel Block], showing total mess collection, total expenditure
 +   on food-grain, fuel and manpower, and the variance carried
 +   forward or refunded.
 +
 +4. The caution-money refund register entries for students who
 +   vacated [Hostel Block] in the last 12 months, showing date of
 +   vacation, amount held, date of refund, and pending cases with
 +   reason for delay.
 +
 +5. The utility-bill payment summary for [Hostel Block] for the last
 +   12 months — electricity, water and internet — with bill numbers
 +   and amounts.
 +
 +6. The institute internal audit and CAG audit observations, if any,
 +   referring to the hostel block or the mess account for the last
 +   audited financial year.
 +
 +7. The name, designation, address and contact details of the
 +   First Appellate Authority under Section 19(1) of the RTI Act.
 +
 +I have declared my status as above. I am an Indian citizen.
 +The application fee of Rs.10 is paid [online / by IPO No. _____].
 +I request that the information be supplied in printed/electronic
 +form. As per Section 7(6), if the reply is delayed beyond 30 days,
 +the information shall be supplied free of charge.
 +
 +Yours faithfully,
 +[Signature]
 +[Name]
 +[Date, Place]
 +</code>
 +
 +===== Frequently asked questions =====
 +
 +==== Can I get the mess bill of a specific other student? ====
 +
 +No. An individual student's mess bill and caution-money entry are **third-party personal information** under **Section 8(1)(j)** of the RTI Act and can be withheld. What you can get is the **aggregate** mess collection, expenditure, variance and audit — these are not personal data. Frame every ask as an aggregate, dated record.
 +
 +==== Is caution money refundable without a time limit? ====
 +
 +There is no central statutory deadline in the RTI Act, but institute Standard Operating Procedures typically prescribe **30 to 60 days** from the no-dues date. A delay beyond that is a compliance failure and a "grievance" under **UGC Redressal Regulations, 2023, Regulation 3**. Use RTI to extract the refund-register entry showing your case as pending, then escalate on UGC e-Samadhaan.
 +
 +==== Can hostel fees be increased mid-session? ====
 +
 +Only with documented **HMC and BoG approval**, and only if the prospectus — which under **UGC Reg 4(1)(e)** must be published 60 days before admission — reserved the right to revise. A mid-session hike with a one-line notice and no published breakup is exactly the kind of record your RTI extracts. The CIC in **Esha Agarwal v. CPIO, NSUT (CIC/NSIOT/A/2021/616197, decided 30 June 2022)** directed the CPIO to re-examine a fee-refund query and furnish a revised reply within 25 days — establishing that fee-refund information is disclosable and a partial reply is not enough.
 +
 +==== What about PG and research-scholar hostels? ====
 +
 +The same disclosure framework applies — the institute is still a public authority under Section 2(h) and the HMC still approves fees. Quote your programme code and hostel block in the application so the CPIO pulls the right ledger.
 +
 +==== Do these rules apply to private AICTE-approved colleges? ====
 +
 +A private college is not a "public authority" under Section 2(h) in the usual sense, so a direct RTI to it will not work. The route is **RTI to the regulator** — AICTE or the state fee regulatory committee — which holds the approved fee-structure data. See [[/rti-for-school-fee-structure]] for the school-level fee-structure approach and [[/rti-for-college-affiliation]] for affiliation records.
 +
 +==== What if the CPIO replies that the information is on the website? ====
 +
 +That is a valid Section 4(1)(b) response **only if** the specific document is actually there and the link works. If the prospectus is missing the hostel-fee head, or the HMC minutes are not uploaded, reply with a First Appeal stating that proactive disclosure is incomplete and that you want the specific certified record. Use the **PIO reply checker** at https://righttoinformation.wiki/tools/pio-reply-checker-app.html to test whether the reply is legally adequate.
 +
 +==== How long do I have to file the First and Second Appeals? ====
 +
 +**First Appeal** under Section 19(1): within **30 days** of the date the CPIO's reply was due (or was received). **Second Appeal** under Section 19(3): within **90 days** of the FAA's order, to the **Central Information Commission (cic.gov.in)** for Central institutes or your State Information Commission for state universities. There is no fee for a second appeal to the CIC.
 +
 +==== Can I inspect the hostel records instead of taking copies? ====
 +
 +Yes. Under the RTI (Regulation of Fee and Cost) Rules, 2005, the **first hour of inspection is free** and **Rs.5 per subsequent hour** is charged. Inspection is useful for bulky ledgers — you can identify the exact pages you want copied at Rs.2 per page. Use the **timeline calculator** at https://righttoinformation.wiki/tools/timeline-calculator-app.html to track your 30/45/90-day deadlines.
 +
 +===== Sources =====
 +
 +  - RTI Act, 2005 — Sections 2(h), 4(1)(b), 6(1), 7(1), 7(6), 8(1)(j), 19(1), 19(3): [rtionline.gov.in](https://rtionline.gov.in/)
 +  - RTI (Regulation of Fee and Cost) Rules, 2005 — Rs.10 fee, BPL exemption, copying charges: [rtionline.gov.in FAQ](https://rtionline.gov.in/faq.php?pageid=c9f0f895fb98ab9159f51fd0297e236d)
 +  - UGC (Redressal of Grievances of Students) Regulations, 2023 — Notification F.1-13/2022 (CPP-II), 11 April 2023, Reg 3 and Reg 4: [ugc.gov.in](https://www.ugc.gov.in/e-book/UGC_Regulation/files/basic-html/page1001.html)
 +  - UGC e-Samadhaan student-grievance portal (helpline 1800-111-656): [samadhaan.ugc.ac.in](https://samadhaan.ugc.ac.in/)
 +  - CPGRAMS — Ministry of Education grievance escalation: [pgportal.gov.in](https://pgportal.gov.in/)
 +  - Central Information Commission (Second Appeal): [cic.gov.in](https://cic.gov.in/)
 +  - NIT Tiruchirappalli RTI Manual 2023 — fee-fixing and hostel management as disclosed functions, CPIO = Registrar (i/c): [nitt.edu](https://www.nitt.edu/home/righttoinfoact/RTI-Manual-2023-v2.pdf)
 +  - IIT Kanpur — Hall Management Rules and Section 4(1)(b) third-party audit reports FY 2018-19 to 2024-25: [iitk.ac.in](https://www.iitk.ac.in/main/public-information)
 +  - Esha Agarwal v. CPIO, NSUT, CIC/NSIOT/A/2021/616197, decided 30 June 2022: [indiankanoon.org](https://indiankanoon.org/doc/65569982/)
 +  - SPPU unrefunded caution money — RTI-revealed, Rs.1.22 crore (hostel deposit Rs.40.36 lakh): [punemirror.com](https://punemirror.com/education/refundable-caution-money-of-rs-1-22-cr-still-lying-with-sppu/)
 +
 +===== Related on RTI Wiki =====
 +
 +  - [[/rti-for-students-and-youth|RTI for Students and Youth — Pillar 3 hub]]
 +  - [[/rti-for-students|RTI for students]]
 +  - [[/rti-for-school-fee-structure|RTI for school fee structure]]
 +  - [[/rti-for-cag-audit-objection|RTI for CAG audit objections]]
 +  - [[/rti-for-college-admission-rejection|RTI for college admission rejection]]
 +  - [[/rti-for-degree-verification|RTI for degree verification]]
 +  - [[/rti-for-scholarship-delay|RTI for scholarship delay]]
 +  - [[university-hostel-eviction-deposit-refund-dispute|University hostel eviction and deposit refund dispute]]
 +
 +//Last reviewed: 4 July 2026.//
 +
 +{{tag>rti hostel-fees mess university students pillar-3 caution-money ugc-redressal-2023}}
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