Filing an RTI: ₹10, thirty days, and the two appeals nobody uses

An RTI application is one of the few instruments in Indian administration where an ordinary citizen sets the deadline and an official has to meet it. It costs ten rupees at the Centre and it works far more often than people expect — provided the application is written the way the Act requires.

What it costs

The application fee for central government bodies is ₹10. States set their own: Gujarat charges ₹20, Maharashtra ₹30 under its 2026 rules, Punjab ₹50. Applicants below the poverty line pay nothing on production of a BPL card. Photocopying charges are extra and are billed after the department tells you how many pages it intends to send.

The deadline you are imposing

• 30 days for a normal reply, counted from receipt of your application.
• 48 hours where the information concerns the life or liberty of a person.
• 35 days if you filed through an Assistant Public Information Officer rather than directly.
• No reply within the window is a deemed refusal — which gives you the right to appeal exactly as if they had said no.

Write questions, not requests

This is where most applications die. The Act obliges a Public Information Officer to supply information that exists on record. It does not oblige anyone to explain, justify, interpret or opine. An application asking why a road has not been repaired can be refused honestly. An application asking for the sanction order, the tender number, the date of the work order and the amount released cannot.

So convert every grievance into documents and dates. Ask for the file notings, the inspection report, the number of complaints registered, the action taken report, the date of dispatch. Number your questions. Keep each one to a single fact.

Where to send it

Central government departments accept applications at rtionline.gov.in, which handles the fee online and routes the application to the right PIO. Several states run their own portals; others still require post. Where you are posting, send it by registered post or speed post and keep the receipt — the date of delivery is what starts your thirty days.

The appeals nobody uses

If the reply does not come, or comes back evasive, you have a first appeal under section 19(1) to the First Appellate Authority, an officer senior to the PIO within the same department. It must be filed within 30 days, there is no fee at the Centre, and the FAA has 30 days to decide, extendable to 45 with reasons recorded.

After that, a second appeal under section 19(3) goes to the Central or State Information Commission within 90 days. The Commission can impose a penalty on the PIO personally — up to ₹25,000 — for refusing an application without reasonable cause or delaying it. That personal liability is the reason first appeals often produce the information the original application did not.

What can be refused

Section 8 lists the exemptions: national security, foreign relations, commercial confidence, information held in a fiduciary capacity, cabinet papers before a decision, and personal information with no public-interest justification. A refusal must cite the specific clause it relies on. A refusal that cites nothing is itself grounds for appeal.

Practical habits

• One subject per application. Multiple unrelated subjects are a standard ground for rejection.
• Keep it under one page. Long applications invite the reply that the request is too broad.
• Never ask for the officer's opinion, even in passing — it lets the whole application be treated as one that seeks non-information.
• Record the date of filing and diarise day 31. The appeal window is short and starts running whether or not you noticed.

Fees and timelines here follow the Right to Information Act, 2005 and the rules made under it. State rules differ, so check your state's schedule before paying.