What is the right to information?

The right to information is the right given to a citizen to access government records or seek information from the public authority.
The Right to Information Act, 2005, which was passed to bring about transparency in the functioning in the government and empower the citizens to access information about the government.
As per Section 2(f) of the RTI Act, 2005, “Information” means any material in any form, which includes records, documents, memos, e-mails, opinions, services, press releases, circulars, orders, logbook, contracts, reports, papers, samples, models, data material held in an electronic form. It further includes information relating to any private body, which a public authority can access under any law for the time being in force.

You cannot ask for opinion of the Public Information Officer. He acts only as an agent and can send only the information which already exists.
The term “public authority” means any authority or body or institution of self-government established or constituted by or Under the constitution or any other law made by the Parliament or the State legislature or any other law made by the State Legislature and includes anybody owned or controlled or substantially financed or non-governmental organization substantially financed either directly or indirectly by funds provided by the appropriate government.
Every Public authority is required to designate as many officers as the Central Public Information Officers (CPIO) or State Public Information Officers (SPIO) in all administrative units or offices under it for the purpose of providing information to persons seeking information under this Act.
A request for seeking information shall be made under Section 6(1) of the RTI Act by the person who desires to obtain information. The application for seeking information has to be in writing, which can be either handwritten or typed accompanied by a fee as may be prescribed.
A person seeking information from any public authority under this Act can make a request in writing in English, Hindi, or in the official language of the State in which the application is to be made.
The application fee prescribed for obtaining information from Central Government is Rs 10/- Whereas the application fee for seeking information from the State Governments differs from State to State and has been prescribed in the State RTI Rules.
The PIO is required to dispose of the application within a period of 30 days from the date of receipt of the request.
The PIO can deny or reject the information sought for, for any of the reasons specified in Section 8 & 9 of the RTI Act. The PIO has to state the reasons for rejecting the information.
If the information sought pertains to a person’s life or liberty, the same shall be provided within 48 hours of the receipt of the request.
The Central Information has been set up in accordance with section 12 of the RTI, which is a statutory body to deal with the complaints received from the individuals or are dissatisfied with the information received from the CPIO or SPIO, or whose request for information has been rejected or denied on unreasonable grounds, or aggrieved from the order passed by the first appellate authority.
The State Information Commission of the various states has been constituted under subsection (1) of Section 15 of the RTI Act, 2005. The SIC has been set up with the objective of fulfilling the duties assigned to it in the Right to Information Act, 2005. The State Information Commission has the same powers as the Central Government.
Any person being aggrieved for the following reasons can file an appeal with the first appellate authority under Section 19(1) of the RTI Act, 2005.
The First appeal has to be filed within 30 days from the date of receipt of PIO’s reply or from the date when the reply was to be received.
Yes, there is a provision for a second appeal. Any person aggrieved from the decision of the first appeal can go for a second appeal which is to be filed with the Central Information Commission or State Information Commission under Section 19 (3) of the RTI Act, 2005.
The limitation period for filing the second appeal is 90 days from the date on which the decision should have been made or was actually received.
Yes, there might be an additional fee for providing information, depending upon the kind of information sought for. This has also been provided under the RTI Act, wherein it has specified that the PIO may ask for an additional fee to be paid for providing the information. The CPIO will intimate the applicant either in the written form if the application has been filed physically. If the applicant has filed an online RTI, then the same is intimated through the status of the application, which can be viewed online, and an e-mail alert or SMS or both will also be sent to the applicant intimating the same.
An RTI Application can be filed in both ways. The Central government has provided a portal for filing online RTI. The website also provides for filing of first appeal and second appeal and also for filing a complaint against the PIO.
Even though the State Governments provide both ways of filing RTI, yet it is preferable if the RTIs pertain to authorities of State Governments, it is filed in the physical mode. This is because the portals provided by the State Governments are not as efficacious as the portal of the Central Government.
Following are the different modes of paying the application fee:
1. In person by paying cash, and you shall receive a receipt for such payment.
2. By Post through:
  • Indian Postal Order
  • Demand Draft
  • Money orders (For Some States only)
  • Affixing Court fee Stamp (For some States only)
  • Banker’s Cheque
  • Also, some states prescribe their accounts in which you have the deposit fee. For that, you can either go to any branch of SBI and deposit the requisite fee in that account and attach the deposit receipt with your RTI application.
  • Or you can also send a postal order or a DD drawn in favor of that account along with your RTI application.
To get complete information about the prescribed fee of various states, read the respective State RTI Rules carefully.
No, there is no prescribed format for making the RTI Application for seeking information from the Central Government.
Yes, some of the States have prescribed their format, which has to be followed accordingly. The application seeking information has to be made in accordance with the format prescribed by the State RTI Rules.
Section 23 of the RTI provides Bar of jurisdiction of courts. It means that other courts are not entitled to entertain any suit, application or other procedding in respect of any order made under this Act and the orders passed under this Act shall be questioned only by way of an appeal under this Act.
The application fee is payable either to the Accounts Officer or to the PIO of the concerned Public Authority.
As per the RTI Rules, 2012, the fee for providing the information under this Act shall be charged at the following rates, namely:
a) A-3 page or smaller size page = Rs2/- per page
b) Actual cost or price of a photocopy in large size page.
c) Actual cost or price for samples or models
d) Diskettes or floppy = Rs 50/- per diskette or floppy
e) Price fixed for publication or Rs 2/- per page of photocopy for extracts from the publication
f) No fee for inspection of records for the first hour and;
g) Fee of Rs 5/- for each subsequent hour or fraction thereof
h) The amount of postal charged so involved in supplying the information which exceeds Rs 50/-
The Fee prescribed by the State Governments vary from State to State for providing information in the form of photocopies, diskettes, floppies, records, etc. To know more more about the fee prescribed by the various States of India read the respective State RTI Rules carefully.
Yes, the High Courts have their own RTI Rules. If you seek to obtain information from any High Court of India, then go through the RTI Rules formulated by the respective High Courts before making the application.
No fee shall be charged from any person who is below poverty line. The people belonging to BPL have to submit a copy of the certificate issued by the appropriate Government in this regard alongwith the application.