Filing an RTI online is quick and cheap. Go to rtionline.gov.in, pick the Ministry or Department you want information from, type your questions, and pay Rs 10. That portal covers Central Government public authorities only, so for a state department you have to use that state’s own RTI portal or file on paper. The reply is due in thirty days.
What you need before you start
Have a working email address and mobile number, since the acknowledgement and SMS alerts go there. Keep a postal address in India ready, because replies often come by post. Draft your questions before you open the form, keeping them within 3,000 characters, and save a longer version as a PDF if needed. If you are claiming the below poverty line exemption, keep the poverty certificate scanned and ready. Keep net banking, a card or UPI available for the fee.
Step by step
- Open rtionline.gov.in and click Submit Request.
- Read the guidelines and tick the confirmation box.
- Select the correct Ministry or Department from the dropdown.
- Fill in your name, address, email and mobile number.
- Type your questions in the request text box, or attach a PDF if it runs past 3,000 characters.
- Answer the Below Poverty Line question. If No, click Make Payment and pay Rs 10 by net banking, card or UPI. If Yes, attach the certificate.
- Submit and save the unique registration number.
- Track it under View Status, and pay any additional copying fee there if the CPIO raises one.
Fees and timelines
The application fee is Rs 10 as prescribed in the RTI Rules 2012. Applicants below the poverty line pay nothing. First appeals are free. Additional fees are charged only when the CPIO has to supply a large number of pages or a disc, and you are told the amount before you pay. The public authority has thirty days to reply, or forty eight hours if the information concerns someone’s life or liberty.
What to do if it goes wrong
Silence for thirty days counts as a refusal, so you do not have to keep waiting. Go back to rtionline.gov.in, click Submit First Appeal, enter your registration number, email address and the date you filed, choose your ground of appeal from the dropdown, write up to 3,000 characters explaining it, and attach any supporting PDF up to 1 MB. There is no fee.
If the first appellate authority also gives you nothing useful, file a second appeal with the Central Information Commission. The Commission’s second appeal portal is integrated with RTI Online, so entering your first appeal registration number, email and filing date pulls the details across automatically. Keep every acknowledgement and the payment receipt, because dates matter at appeal stage. For portal problems, the RTI Online help desk can be reached on 011-24010690 and 011-24010691.