THE RIGHT TO

INFORMATION ACT,
2005

Comes into force [Section 1]:

Some provisions such as the preparation of
manuals as part of proactive disclosure,
appointment of Public Information Officers
and Assistant Public Information Officers,
setting up Information Commissions and
appointment of Information Commissioners at
the Central and State level and specifying
intelligence and security agencies which shall
be exempted from the Act, came into force
with immediate effect (15 June, 2005).
Remaining provisions came into from the 120th
day of enactment (12th Oct., 2005) from which
date the Act became fully operational.

Who is covered: Section 2(h)

Geographically: Covers all of India except
Jammu & Kashmir (Jammu & Kashmir
passed its own Right to Information Act in
2004)
Jurisdictionally: Covers all PUBLIC
AUTHORITIES, which means:
any body constituted under the
Constitution or a law made by Parliament
or State Legislatures.
Any body constituted by a notification or
order issued by the Central and State
Governments.

 Any body owned, controlled or substantially financed by the

Central Government or the State Government or the
Administration of the Union Territory (will include Panchayats,
municipalities and other local bodies).
Any body constituted by notification issued or order made by the
appropriate government.
Any non-government organisation substantially financed directly
or indirectly by funds provided by the appropriate government.
Other Bodies: Information relating to a private body that can be
accessed by a public authority under any law in force.

Information means [Section 2(f)]:

Records, documents, memos, emails,
opinions, advices, press releases, circulars,
orders, logbooks, contracts, reports, papers,
samples, models, data material held in any
electronic form.
Also includes information relating to any
private body which can be assessed by a
public authority under any other law.

Right to Information means

[Sec. 2(j)]
Right to inspect works, documents, records.
Right to take notes, extracts or certified
copies.
Right to take samples.
Right to obtain information in electronic
modes such as diskettes, floppies, etc. or
through printouts.

Obligations of Public
Authorities[Sec. 4]:
A. Every public authority to publish the following
manuals within 120 days and thereafter update them
every year:
1) The particulars of the organization, its functions and
duties;
2) The powers and duties of its officers and employees;
3) The procedure followed in its decision making
process, including channels of supervision and
accountability;

 4)The norms set out by it for the discharge of its

functions;
5)Information regarding the rules, regulations,
instructions, manuals and records used by its
employees for the discharge of its functions,
6) A statement of the categories of the documents
held by it or under its control;
7) Information regarding any arrangement that
exists for consultation or representation, by
members of the public, in relation to the
formulation of policy or implementation;

 8) Advice given by the boards, councils,

committees and other bodies consisting of two or
more persons. Additional information as to
whether the meetings of these are open to the
public, or the minutes of such meetings are
accessible to the public;
9) A directory of its officers and employees;
10) The monthly remuneration received by each of
its officers and employees, including the system of
compensation as provided in its regulations;

 11)The budget allocated to each of its agency,

indicating the particulars of all plans, proposed
expenditures and reports on disbursements made;
12) The details of the implementation of subsidy
programmes, including the amounts allocated and
the details and beneficiaries of such programmes;
13) Particulars of recipients of concessions,
permits or authorisations granted by it;

 14) Details of the information available to, or held

by it, reduced in an electronic form;
15)The particulars of facilities available to citizens
for obtaining information,including the working
hours of a library or reading room, if maintained
for public use;
16) The names, designations and other particulars
of the Public Information Officers.
17) Such information as may be prescribed.

Further obligations of Public

Authorities [Section 4]
B.To maintain data in a catalogued and indexed form,
computerize and connect all appropriate records
through a network all over the country on different
systems.
C. To proactively publish all relevant facts while
formulating important policies or announcing
decisions which affect the public.
D. To provide reasons for its administrative or quasijudicial decisions to affected persons.

E. To endeavour to provide as much

information suo motu to the public at
regular intervals so that public have
minimum resort to the use of the Act.
F. All materials to be disseminated taking into
consideration the cost effectiveness, local
language and the most effective method of
communication in the local area.

What is not open to disclosure

[Sections 8 and 9]:
1) Information that would prejudicially affect
the sovereignty, integrity, security, scientific or
economic interest and relations with a foreign
state or lead to incitement of an offence.
2) Information received in confidence from a
foreign government.
3) Information which endangers life and
physical safety of any person.
4) Information which is likely to impede
investigation and prosecution processes.

 5) Information which identifies the source of information or

assistance given in confidence for law enforcement or
security purposes.
6) Cabinet Papers including deliberations of Ministers,
Secretaries and other officers (but decisions and related
reasons contained in them will be made public after the
decision has been taken and the matter is complete or over).
Matters which come under exemptions shall, however, not
be disclosed).
7)Information whose release is forbidden by a court or
tribunal or disclosure which might constitute contempt of
court.

 8) Personal or private information.

9) Commercial and trade secrets, intellectual
property etc. that would harm competitive position
of third party.
10) Information available to a person in his
fiduciary relationship.
11) Information which infringes copyright of any
person other than the State. (Section 9)
12) Information furnished by the specified
intelligence and security organisations to the
Central Government. [Sec.24(1)]

A. However, 3 exemptions (d, e and j) are not

absolute and withholding of information must
be balanced against disclosure in the public
interest.
B. Information to be released even if harm is
shown to the public authority if the public
benefit in knowing the information outweighs
the harm that may be caused by disclosure.
C. Subject to 3 exemptions (a, c and i), the Act also
contains a provision for reveal of information,
which is otherwise exempted from disclosure
under section 8, on completion of 20 years after
the event.

Partial Disclosure: Section 10

The Act also incorporates the principle of
severability and access to non-exempted
information contained in a record can be
allowed if it can be reasonably severed from
any part that contains exempt information.

Who is excluded?-[Section 24
and Second Schedule]:
Central Intelligence Agencies and security
agencies, specified in the Second Schedule,
exempted from the Act. Similar agencies notified
by the State Governments will also be excluded
from the Acts purview. However, information
relating to corruption and human rights
violations must be given the latter only with the
approval of the Central or State Information
Commission, as the case may be.

Public Information Officers and

Assistant Public Information
Officers[ Section 5]
Each Public Authority must designate Public
Information Officers within 100 days of the
enactment whose responsibility it is to deal with
requests for information and also to assist persons
seeking information.
Likewise, Assistant Public Information Officers
must be designated at each sub-divisional or subdistrict level for forwarding the request/appeal to
the concerned Public Information Officer/
appellate authority.

Who can make a request ? [Sec.3]:

Only a citizen of India can make a request for
seeking information under the Act.

Application Procedure[Sec. 6]
1)Application can be made in
writing or electronically in English or
Hindi or local official language of the
area wherein it is being made.
2) Reasons for seeking information
need not be given.

Fees: [Sections 6 & 7]

Fees, as may be prescribed, to be paid along with the
application. No fee for persons below the poverty line.

1)

This benchmark shall be as determined by the appropriate government.

2) Application fees, to be prescribed in the rules, shall be

reasonable.
3) Further fees, towards cost of providing information, to
be intimated by the PIO in writing to the requester with
calculation details of how the figure was arrived at.
4) Applicant can seek a review of the fees through an
appeal to the prescribed Appellate Authority.
5) Applicant to be provided information free of cost in case
of failure to comply with the response time-limit.

Response Time :
[ Sections 7&11]:

1) 30 days from the date of application.

2) 48 hours for information concerning the life or liberty of
a person.
3) Where a requester is to be charged further fee towards
cost of providing information, the period intervening
between the date of intimation and the date of payment, to
be excluded from the 30 day period.
4) If the interests of a third party are also involved, then
response time shall be 40 days.
5) No response on application for 30 days is a deemed
refusal.

Disposal of Requests
[Sections 6 and 7]:
Where a request relates to a subject connected with the
functions of another public authority or the requested
information is held by such authority, the first authority
which received the request shall transfer the same to
the concerned public authority within five days under
intimation to the requester.
Where a request relates to information supplied in
confidence by a third party, the PIO shall give a notice
to the third party within five days and the
representation made by the party shall be taken into
consideration while deciding the request.

 Information to be provided in the form in which it

is sought unless it disproportionately diverts the
resources
or
is
detrimental
to
the
safety/preservation of records.
Where a request is rejected, the PIO shall inform
the requester of the reasons therefor, the
particulars of the appellate authority and the
period within which an appeal may be preferred.

Appeals[ Section 19]:

Internal Appeal:
First appeal, by the requester or the third party, to be made
to the officer senior to Public Information Officer in the
concerned Public Authority within 30 days from the date of
latters decision.
Appeal to be disposed of within a period of 30 days
extendable upto a total of 45 days.
External Appeal:
Second appeal to the Central or State Information
Commission within 90 days of the date on which the
decision was given or should have been made by the
Appellate Authority.

In both the appeal proceedings, onus to

prove that a denial of the request was
justified shall be on the Public Information
Officer.
Decision of the IC is binding. But appeal
on a point of fact or law can be filed in the
High Court.

Penalty Provisions[Section 20]:

A Public Information Officer will be liable to a fine of Rs.. 250 per day up
to a maximum of Rs.. 25,000/- for
not accepting an application;
delaying information release without reasonable cause;
malafidely denying information;
knowingly giving incomplete, incorrect or misleading information;
destroying information that has been requested; and
obstructing furnishing of information in any manner.
The Central Information Commission and the State Information
Commissions will have the power to impose this penalty. The
Commission can also recommend disciplinary action against an erring
PIO for persistent violation of the law.

Jurisdiction of Courts[Section 23]:

The Act bars the jurisdiction of the
Courts to entertain any suit, application, etc.
against an order made thereunder.
However, it is only the jurisdiction of the
civil courts that is being removed and the
writ jurisdiction of the Supreme Court and
the High Courts under articles 32 and 226
respectively would continue to remain.

Act to have overriding effect[Sec.22]

The provisions of the Act have been given
an overriding effect over anything
inconsistent therewith contained in the
Official Secrets Act, 1923 or any other law
or instrument.

Central Information Commission

[Section 12]
Central Information Commission (CIC) to be constituted
by the Central Government through Gazette Notification.
CIC includes 1 Chief Information Commissioner (CIC)
and not more than 10 Information Commissioners (IC)
who will be appointed by the President of India.
It will be based in Delhi. Other offices may be
established in other parts of the country with approval
from the Central Government.
CIC will exercise its powers autonomously without
being subject to directions by any other authority.

Appointment Process and

Qualifications[Section 12]:
Appointment Committee includes Prime Minister (Chair),
Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha and one
Cabinet Minister to be nominated by the Prime Minister.
Candidates must be eminent person in public life with
knowledge and experience in law, science, technology.
Social service, management, journalism mass media or
administration and governance.
No MP or MLA can be appointed CIC or IC. Candidates
should also not be connected with any political party,
hold any office of profit or carry on any business or
pursue any profession.

CIC-Term of Service[ Sec. 13]

1) CIC/IC appointed for 5 years from date of
entering office or till he attains the age of 65 years.
2) CIC/IC is not eligible for reappointment.
However, an IC will be eligible for appointment as
CIC- the total term as IC/CIC aggregating not
more than 5 years.
3) Salary of CIC and IC will be of the same as that
of the Chief Election Commissioner and Election
Commissioner respectively. This will not be varied
to the disadvantage of the CIC/IC during service.

 If candidate is a pensioner at the time of

appointment, his salary as CIC/IC shall be

reduced by the amount of
pension
equivalent to retirement benefits.
No bar to the CIC/IC taking up further
appointment or holding an office of profit
under
the
Government
including
Constitutional appointment.

Removal of CIC and IC:

Section 14
Can be removed by the President on
grounds of misbehaviour or incapacity if
the Supreme Court, on a reference made to
it by the President, has reported that the
CIC/IC ought to be removed on such
ground
.[Making
profit
from
a
Governmental contract or a private
contract during term of office constitutes
misbehaviour.]

 President can also order removal of CIC/IC without

reference to the Supreme Court on grounds of
(a) insolvency
(b) conviction of an offence involving moral turpitude.
(c) takes up any paid job outside official duties during
the term of office
(d) infirmity of body or mind
(e) on acquiring financial or other interest which is
likely to affect his/her functioning as CIC or IC.

State Information Commission:

[Sec. 15, 16 & 17]
State Government to constitute State Information
Commission consisting of 1 State Chief Information
Commissioner (SCIC) and not more than 10 Information
Commissioners to be appointed by the Governor.
The Appointments Committee will be headed by the
Chief Minister. Other members include the Leader of the
Opposition and one Cabinet Minister nominated by the
Chief Minister.
The qualifications and terms and conditions of service
remain the same as that of the Central Commissioners.

 The headquarters of the State Information Commission

may be based anywhere in the State concerned and its
other offices in other parts of that State.
The salary of the State Chief Information Commissioner
will be the same as that of an Election Commissioner.
The salary of the State Information Commissioner will
be the same as that of the Chief Secretary of the State
Government.
The Governor has the power to remove an SCIC or
other ICs in the same manner as the President has in the
case of the Central Information Commissioners.

CIC/SIC-Functions [Sec.18]
Central Information Commission/State Information
Commission has a duty to receive complaints from
any person who has not been able to submit an information
request because a PIO has not been appointed.
who has been refused information that was
requested.
who has received no response to his/her
information request within the specified time
limits.

who thinks the fees charged are unreasonable.

who thinks the information given is incomplete
or false or misleading.
and any other matter relating to obtaining
information under this law.
CIC may initiate inquiry in the above situations if
there are reasonable grounds for so doing.

CIC/SIC-Powers [Sec.18]
CIC/SIC will have powers of Civil Court such asa) summoning and enforcing attendance of persons,
compelling them to give oral or written evidence on oath
and to produce documents or things
b)requiring the discovery and inspection of documents
c)receiving evidence on affidavit
d)requisitioning public records or copies from any court or
office
e)issuing summons for examination of witnesses or
documents
f) Any other matter which may be prescribed.

CIC/SIC-Powers [Sec.18]
Power to secure compliance of its decisions from
the Public Authority includes:
appointing a PIO where none exists.
publishing certain information or categories of
information
making necessary changes to the records
management, maintenance and destruction
procedures of the Public Authority.
enhancing training provision for officials on RTI.

 Seeking an annual report from the Public

Authority on compliance with this law.
Require it to compensate for any loss or
other detriment suffered by the requestor.
Impose penalties under this law.
Reject the appeal.

Reporting Procedure[Sec. 25]:

Central Information Commission(CIC) will send an
annual report to the Central Government on the
implementation of the provisions of this law at the
end of the year.
The State Information
Commission(SIC) will send a report to the State
Government.
Each report will contain details of number of requests
received by each Public Authority, number of
rejections and appeals, particulars of any disciplinary
action taken, amount of fees and charges collected etc.

 Each Ministry has a duty to collect and provide

statistics of its Public Authorities and send them to
the CIC/SIC.
Central Government will table the CIC report
before Parliament after the end of each year. The
concerned State Government will table the report
of the SIC before the Vidhan Sabha (and the
Vidhan Parishad wherever applicable).

Central/State Govts. to prepare

programmes [Sec. 26]:
Develop educational programmes for the public, especially
disadvantaged communities, on RTI.
Encourage Public Authorities to participate in the
development/organisation of such programmes.
Promote timely dissemination of accurate information to the
public.
Train officers and develop training materials.
Compile and disseminate a User Guide for the common person in
its official language.
Publish names, designation postal addresses and contact details
of PIO and other information such as notices regarding fees to be
paid, remedies available in law if request is rejected, etc.

Rule Making Power[Sections

27 and 28]:
Central Government, State Governments
and Competent Authorities to make rules
for implementing the law.

COMPETENT AUTHORITY[Sec.2]:
Speaker of the Lok Sabha at the Centre and the Vidhan Sabha
in the States and Union Territories.
Chairman of the Rajya Sabha and the Legislative Councils in
the States (wherever applicable).
Chief Justice of India and Chief Justice of High Courts in the
States.
President in the case of other authorities created under or by the
Constitution (like the Election Commission of India, SC/ST
Commission, Finance Commissions etc.) at the Central level.
The Governor at the level of the States.
Administrator of Union Territories (like Lt. Governor).

Power to remove difficulties

[Section:30]
The Central Government to make
provisions as are necessary/expedient for
removing any difficulty which may arise in
giving effect to the provisions of the Act.