RTI

Read the RTI Act as a clock plus a ladder. The CLOCK: 30 days is the normal reply deadline; 48 hours if the information concerns life or liberty; 35 days if the request goes through an Assistant PIO; and the applicant pays nothing extra if the deadline is missed — information then becomes free. The LADDER: citizen files with the Public Information Officer → first appeal to the departmental First Appellate Authority within 30 days → second appeal to the Information Commission within 90 days. The commissions mirror each other exactly: Central Information Commission (Chief plus up to ten Information Commissioners) and a State Information Commission in each state, Gujarat included. Remember the Act's logic: disclosure is the rule, exemption under Section 8 is the exception, and Section 4 requires proactive suo motu disclosure so that citizens need to ask less.

• 30 days normally, 48 hours if life or liberty is at stake.

  The public information officer must respond within thirty days. Where the information concerns the life or liberty of a person, the limit collapses to forty-eight hours. If a third party is involved the limit extends to forty days.

• PIO → first appeal → Information Commission.

  Three steps. The public information officer answers; a first appeal goes to an officer senior to the PIO within thirty days; a second appeal goes to the Central or State Information Commission within ninety days. Nothing goes straight to court.

• 1The Right to Information Act was passed in 2005 and came fully into force in October that year.
• 2Every public authority must appoint public information officers and proactively disclose specified categories of information.
• 3Section 8 lists the exemptions — including national security, information barred by a court, and personal information with no public interest.
• 4A public information officer who refuses or delays without reasonable cause can be penalised at a daily rate up to a statutory ceiling.
• 5Gujarat has its own State Information Commission for appeals against state public authorities.
• 6The RTI Amendment Act of 2019 changed the terms and service conditions of information commissioners, making them prescribable by the central government.

• The Right to Information Act was passed in 2005 and came fully into force in October 2005, replacing the Freedom of Information Act, 2002.
• Information must normally be supplied within 30 days, and within 48 hours where it concerns the life or liberty of a person.
• The Central Information Commission consists of the Chief Information Commissioner and not more than ten Information Commissioners.
• Section 8 lists exemptions from disclosure, and intelligence and security organisations listed in the Second Schedule are largely outside the Act, except for information on corruption and human rights violations.
• The Supreme Court has held the right to information to flow from the freedom of speech and expression under Article 19(1)(a).

• The first appeal is to a senior officer within the same public authority, not to the Information Commission. The Commission hears the second appeal.

• Indian Polity by M. Laxmikanth
• Governance in India by M. Laxmikanth
• The Right to Information Act, 2005 — bare act

• NCERT textbooks (free PDFs)
• Constitution of India (full text)
• Central Information Commission (RTI)
• Gujarat State Portal