The RTI application to seek information about the functioning of a government agency can be filed by anyone. The agency has 30 days or 48 hours to reply to the application either answering the questions, or declining the application.
In case your RTI application gets rejected, you can take any of the following courses:
-
If an Assistant Public Officer has refuse to give access to any information, you can file a complaint with the Information Commission.
-
If the APO has not given appropriate response to your request for information within the specified time limit, even then you can file a complaint with the Information Commission.
-
If the APO has given incomplete, misleading or false information to your application, a complaint can be made to the Information Commission.
-
If an Assistant Public Officer has denied to forward your application to the Senior Public Officer, you can file a complaint to the Information Commission.
-
If you do not receive a response within 48 hours or 30 days or do not get sufficient response of your application, you can file an appeal with a senior Public Information Officer. You get 30 days to file an appeal from the day the former time period ends. The senior PIO has 30 days to dispose of the appeal.
-
If the senior authority fails to respond within the given time period, or gives unsatisfactory response, then you can file a second appeal with the Central Information Commission within 90 days of the date of decision from first appeal.
The RTI Act, not only gives you the power to seek information from any public authority, but also seek remedy if your application has received no response or gets rejected.