P M Ravindran

2/18, 'Aathira', Sivapuri, Kalpathy-678003

Tele: 0491-2576042; E-mail: raviforjustice@gmail.com

File:RTI-rules2017-redraft-060417 06 Apr 2017

Note: The DoPT, vide their circular No 1/5/2016-IR dated 31 Mar 2017, has invited suggestions
from the public on the proposed RTI Rules, 2017 attached to it. These rules have nothing in
them to ensure compliance of the law by PIOs, FAAs and ICs and are obviously intended to
make it more difficult for information seekers to access information and easy for public servants
to avoid providing them. If anything these proposals only expose the public servants who have
drafted them and approved them for circulation as idiots and traitors!

In this context it is pertinent to recollect the Natchiappan Commitee of Parliament which had
invited suggestions from the public on the amendments required for the RTI Act. In fact even
that move was seen by activists working in this area as a move by the then government to
neutralise the good aspects of the transparency law. In the event many citizens wasted a lot of
their time and energy to give suggestions which did not see the light of the day.

Subsequently, the tainted PriceWater Cooper House was engaged (at considerable cost, of
course) to study the implemention of this law. And they did produce a glossy report which, in
my opinion, can be easily trashed. A copy of the report is in my posession and can be provided,
through email, to anyone seeking it.

Under the circumstances it has become necessary to draft an entirely independant set of rules
for the effective implementation of the RTI Act in keeping with its objectives- for setting out the
practical regime of right to information for citizens to secure access to information under the
control of public authorities, in order to promote transparency and accountability in the working
of every public authority and also to contain corruption and to hold Governments and their
instrumentalities accountable to the governed- as stated in its preamble.

THE RIGHT TO INFORMATION RULES, 2017

In exercise of the powers conferred by section 27 of the Right to
Information Act, 2005 (22 of 2005) and in supersession of the Right
to Information Rules 2012, except as respects things done or
omitted to be done before such supersession, but the procedures
being applicable to all applications and appeals which are at
different stages of processing as on the date of these rules
becoming effective, the Central Government hereby makes the
following rules, namely:-

1.Short title and commencement:-

(1) These rules may be called the Right to Information Rules,2017.
(2) They shall come into force on the date of their publication in the
Official Gazette.

2. Definitions:- In these rules, unless the context otherwise

requires,
(a)"Act" means the Right to Information Act, 2005 (22 of 2005);
 (b) "public authority" means any authority or body or institution of
self- government as defined in the Act and would include
Members of Parliament also.
(c) First Appellate Authority (FAA) means the public servant
superior to the CPIO and designated as such as per Sec 19(1)
of the Act.
(c) All other words and expressions used herein but not defined in
these rules shall have the same meanings as assigned to them
in the Act.

3. Designation of Public Information Officers (PIO), Nodal

PIO, Assistant PIO and FAA(s) under Sec 5 and 19 of the Act.
(a) The head of a public authority having a strength of 5 or more
public servants, including himself, will designate a central PIO
and also designate himself as the appellate authority.
(b) Any public authority having a strength of 15 or more public
servants shall designate an additional central public
information officer for every 15 public servants or part thereof.
Where there is more than one central public information officer
one of them shall be designated as the nodal central public
information officer who will co-ordinate activities with the
others. The nodal central public information officer shall be
assisted by a central assistant public information officer.
(c) There shall be an appellate authority for every 3 CPIOs in a
public authority and in cases where there is more than one
appellate authority in a public authority the head of the public
authority shall be the nodal appellate authority coordinating
the activities of all the appellate authorities in the public
authority.
(d) In the case of public authorities having less than 5 public
servants, the head of the public authority shall be the CPIO
and his superior (in another public authority) shall be the
appellate authority.
(e) In the case of single member public authorities like Members
of Parliament, who are provided with staff/allowance to
maintain an office in their constituencies, applications from
citizens for information under the Act shall be accepted and
transferred, under sec 6(3) of the Act, to the concerned public
authorities dealing with the specific information sought.

4. Application.
(a) An application for information shall be in English or any
other languages used by the Union or in the State in the area
where the public authority is located*1.
(b) It shall preferably be listed, using paragraph numbers, for
ease of providing the information and for facilitating
processing of appeals.
 (c)It shall be made on plain paper or digitally and shall contain
the contact details of the applicant which may even be Post
Box number in the name of the applicant. The applicant may
disclose his telephone/mobile numbers and e mail id if he
desires so. There shall be no fee required to be paid by the
applicant.*2
(d) There is no need for the applicant to disclose the purpose
of seeking the information.
(e) The applications shall be submitted in person or through
a representative which may even be a courier, including the
post offices, or through electronic means.
Receipts/acknowledgements will have to be obtained in all
cases.

5. Processing of applications.
(a) The application may be accepted directly or through the
normal procedure followed for receipt of mail.
(b) The recipient shall allot a unique number to the
application that will identify the public authority and the
application and record its receipt in the register meant for the
purpose.
(c)The copy of the application, after masking the contact details,
will be uploaded on the website of the public authority or a
common website created for the purpose, along with the
application number assigned to it. (Search facility should
provide for tracking the document and its docket using the
applicants name, name of the public authority, date of the
application as mentioned by the applicant, the subject and/or
application number using any of them independently or in
combination.)
(d) The recipient of the application will then transfer it to the
CPIO or ACPIO, as the case may be. This transfer need not be
through any hierarchical channels as may exist in the public
authority.
(e) In the case of applications, addressed to different public
authorities, handed over to the ACPIO, the ACPIO (or in his
absence the Nodal PIO or PIO) shall transfer the application to
the addressee expeditiously but within 5 days of its receipt in
the public authority and endorse a copy of the letter
transferring it to the applicant also.
(f) The date of receipt of the application in the public authority,
which is required to provide the information, will be considered
for the purpose of calculating the period of 30 days specified in
sec 7(1) of the Act.
(g) At every stage of transfer, the recipient of the application
will send an acknowledgement to the applicant through SMS/
email, if available, indicating the application number. The
 information shall be updated in the relevant docket at the web
site too.
(h) The date and time of all transfers will be recorded in the
docket, a copy of which will be provided to the applicant even
if such information has not been sought by him.
(i) The CPIO will first re draft the application, if necessary, by
reproducing the request for information in English and in the
form of a list and mark specific requirements for the actual
custodians of the information in the public authority and
transfer it to them within 24 hours of receipt of the application
with instructions to produce the information and copies of
documents along with a list of such documents as early as
possible but not later than 15 days from the date of transfer. If
any custodian of information/documents, fail to comply with
the requirement he may be given an additional 2 days with the
approval of the appellate authority.
(j) In case of transfer of the application, in part or full, to another
public authority, sec 6(3) will be complied with by endorsing a
copy of the letter under which the transfer is effected, to the
applicant also. Sec 6(3) will be complied with for as many
public authorities as are required to provide the complete
information sought.
(k)On receipt of information/copies of documents the CPIO will
compile it, using the format of the redrafted application
indicating which all information are being provided and action
taken on those that are not being provided. It will then be send
to the applicant, along with a copy of the docket, with
information to the appellate authority.
(Note: No cost is demanded and the complete information and
copies of documents along with its complete list, is provided free
of cost, for reasons given at ser 2 of Comments)
(l) The reply by the CPIO will include the following information,
even if not sought specifically by the applicant: the name and
his designation as the CPIO as well as his regular designation
in the public authority, full address of the public authority
including the Postal Index Number, telephone and mobile
numbers and e mail id. If he has not been provided with official
telephone/mobile numbers and e mail id, such details of his
superior who has been provided those, and similar details of
the FAA will be provided.
(m) The reply by the CPIO will be in the language of the
application and English (repeat and English), if the language
used by the applicant is not English. If required by the
applicant, copies of documents which are not in the language
used in the application, will be provided after being translated
into English and duly authenticated by the CPIO.
 (n) For the purpose of calculating 30 days the date of
handing over to postal authorities/courier agencies will only be
considered.
(o) If the CPIO fails, for whatever reasons, to communicate
the contents of the docket and the date of posting the reply
cannot also be confirmed, it shall be presumed that the
application had been delivered to the CPIO 3 days after it was
posted/couriered and the reply had been posted/couriered 3
days before the receipt by the applicant
(p) The onus of proving that the information/copies of
documents sought have been delivered to the applicant will be
that of the CPIO.

6. Processing of 1st appeal (by the designated FAA).

(a) T he applicant, on receipt of the information and copies
of the documents, if not satisfied with the response, may file a
first appeal with the FAA within 30 days of receipt.
(b) The appeal may be submitted in person or through a
representative which may even be a courier, including the post
offices, or through electronic means.
Receipts/acknowledgements will have to be obtained in all
cases.
(c)The appeal may be processed like the application is processed
as detailed in para 5(a) to (c) with the following changes:
The appeal number shall be created by adding a suffix to the
application number already provided.
(d) The appeal shall then be transferred to the FAA.
(e) The FAA shall call for the relevant records and verify the
contents of the response of the CPIO as well as the contentions
of the appellant. If any deficiency has been noted in the
response of the CPIO, even when such deficiencies have not
been explicitly mentioned in the appeal, he will take necessary
action to rectify them which may include the following:
(i) Direction to the CPIO to provide the missing information
(ii) Direction to the CPIO to comply with Sec 6(3) of the Act
(iii) Confirm compliance with the above direction
(iv) Disseminate the lessons learnt amoung all the public
servants in the public authority
(f) Communicate the action taken, findings and decision to the
appellant.
(g) The details at para 5(l) to (p), as modified appropriately,
applies for the FAA also.

7. Duties of the Chief Information Commissioner.

 (a) Apart from the duties listed at Sec 12(4) of the Act , it is
necessary for the Chief Information Commissioner to do the
following in order to fulfill the obligations of information
commissioners to enforce the law in letter and spirit.
(b) By exercising his powers under Sec 19(8) he should cause to be
published by the commission on its website all the subjects
dealt with by various public authorities and records held with
each public servant of every public authority. This should be
done by providing links at this site to the information
published by the public authorities in pursuance of the
requirement at sec 4(1)(b)(i) and 4(1)(b)(v) of the Act.
(c) The Chief Information Commissioner shall divide the
complaints/appeals amoung the information commissioners in
such a manner that the load on each commissioner is
comparable with that of others.
(d) The Chief information Commissioner should ensure that all
complaints/appeals received by the commission are decided
on a first come first served basis, except in the case of
complaints/appeals involving life and liberty of citizens.
(e) In no case should a complaint/appeal filed one month earlier
than the latest complaint/appeal decided by any information
commissioner be kept pending.
(f) In no case should any complaint/appeal be pending for decision
beyond 90 days.
(g) The Chief information Commissioner should ensure that each
information commissioners decides atleast 30 appeals per day
and for calculating the work load one appeal shall be
considered to be equal to 3 complaints.
(h) The Chief Information Commissioner should ensure that the
proceedings are conducted in English or the language used by
the applicant if it is any of the languages used by the Union or
States. To facilitate this the public servants employed in the
Commission should be from all parts of the country who can
double as translators when the need the arises.

8. Processing of Complaint/2nd appeal at the Central

Information Commission.
(a) An applicant may file a complaint, for any of the reasons
given in sec 18 (1) of the Act or an appeal under Sec 19(3), if
he is not satisfied with the decision of the FAA, for whatever
reasons, including delay in deciding the appeal, to the Chief
Information Commissioner, Central Information Commission.
(b) The complaint may be filed within 90 days of the events,
listed at sec 18(1) of the Act, happening.
(c) The 2nd appeal may be filed within 90 days of receipt of the
decision of the FAA or on non receipt of the decision even after
the expiry of 30 days of submission of the 1st appeal.
(d) The complaint/2nd appeal will be accompanied by copies of
the application, reply/replies from the CPIO(s), 1st appeal(s)
and the reply/replies from the FAA(s), as applicable.
(e) On receipt of the complaint/cappeal along with the
documents mentioned in para 8(d) the recipient will process it
as mentioned in para 5 till it is transferred to the concerned IC
who is required to decide on it.
(f) The IC will after going through the complaint/ 2nd appeal
and the documents submitted with it, will decide on the
answers for the following questions, as applicable, for each
public authority involved:
(i) Had all disclosable information sought and held with the
respective public authorities been disclosed within the
specified period?
(ii) In case of information sought but not held with the
public authority had Sec 6(3) of the Act been complied
with, including communication of the matter of transfer to
the applicant?
(iii) Who are the CPIOs who have defaulted and what are the
their defaults?
(iv) Who are the FAAs who have decided the 1st appeal and
was there any deficiency on their part?
(g) After having decided that specific CPIOs have defaulted and
penalty needs to be imposed on them, the IC will give them an
opportunity to being heard by seeking an affidavit from the
defaulting CPIO(s) , duly countersigned by the FAA, clarifying
the deficiencies listed and reasons why the penalty should not
be imposed. The copy of this notice providing the opportunity
to being heard to the CPIO should also be provided to the
appellant for his information and records.
(h) On receipt of these affidavits, if the IC finds any merit in any
of the reasons given for not penalising, he shall provide a copy
of the affidavit to the appellant for his arguments to be
submitted within 30 days of receipt of the copy of the
affidavit(s). Only after receipt of these arguments should he
take a final decision in the appeal. The decision should clearly
bring out the reasons, especially if no penalty is imposed.
Direction to the superior authorities to take administrative
action against defaulting FAAs should also be part of the
decision.
(i) The decision should necessarily include a direction to the
CPIO to provideto the commission the information/copies of
documents, duly attested, denied to the applicant till then.
 This information/copies of documents shall be provided to the
appellant/complainant.
(j) Apart from the penalty imposed under sec 20 of the Act, the
IC should also recover the cost of documents provided free of
cost to the appellant and the compensation to be paid to the
appellant, as per sec 19(8)(b), for the time, effort and cost in
pursuing the appeals.
(k) If the complete information had been provided before
submission of the 2nd appeal the CPIO should compensate the
appellant to the tune of Rs 5000/- and if it is provided only
after the 2nd appeal the FAA should also pay a compensation
of Rs 5000/- to the appellant.
(l) No complaint or appeal should be returned unless the
material documents that are required for deciding them have
not been provided by the complainant/appellant.
(m) The final decision in all complaints and 2nd appeals should
published on the web site of the commission within 24 hours.
This information along with the URL of the decision should be
communicated to the complainant/appellant through SMS/
email in cases where the complainant/appellant has provided
hismobile number and or e mail id. If such information has not
been provided by the complainant/appellant copy of the
decision will be despatched to him within 24 hours.
(n) Onus of proving that it has been communicated to the
complainant/appellant will be that of the information
commissioner.

Comments.

*1. Refer Art 350 of the Constitution of India

*2. In view of the provisions of sec 4(1)(b) and 4(2) and DoPT
circulars directing public authorities to upload applications, appeals
and resposes to them on the website of the public authority and
nearly 12 years have passed since the Act has come into force it is
necessary to do away with the application fee.