Obligations of public authorities, the PIO, and how a request is made and decided

1. Section 4: duties of every public authority

Section 4(1) requires every public authority to:

• (a) maintain all its records duly catalogued and indexed, and computerise and network those that are appropriate to be computerised, within a reasonable time and subject to resources;
• (b) publish, within 120 days of the enactment, and update every year, seventeen categories of information, among them: its organisation, functions and duties; the powers and duties of its officers; the decision-making procedure and channels of supervision; the norms for its functions; the rules, regulations, manuals and records it uses; the categories of documents it holds; arrangements for public consultation; its boards and committees and whether their meetings are open; a directory of officers; the monthly remuneration of each officer and employee; the budget of each agency with plans and disbursements; the manner of execution of subsidy programmes and the beneficiaries; the recipients of concessions, permits and authorisations; information held in electronic form; facilities for citizens to obtain information; and the names and particulars of the PIOs;
• (c) publish all relevant facts while formulating important policies or announcing decisions which affect the public;
• (d) give reasons for its administrative or quasi-judicial decisions to affected persons.

Section 4(2) makes it a constant endeavour to give as much information suo motu as possible, including through the internet, “so that the public have minimum resort to the use of this Act to obtain information”. Sections 4(3) and 4(4) require wide dissemination, in the local language, in the most effective way for the area, free or at the cost of the medium. The Explanation says “disseminated” includes notice boards, newspapers, public announcements, media broadcasts, the internet and inspection of offices.

The Supreme Court took up the poor compliance with section 4 in Kishan Chand Jain v. Union of India, 2023 INSC 741. It held that power and accountability go together: the right in section 3 rests in reality on the duty in section 4, so section 4 is not an optional extra. It directed the Central and State Information Commissions to monitor the implementation of section 4 continuously, using their powers under the Act, and to issue directions to public authorities where needed.

2. Section 5: the Public Information Officer

• Every public authority must designate as many Central or State PIOs as are needed in all its administrative units, section 5(1), and a Central or State Assistant PIO at each sub-divisional or sub-district level, section 5(2), to receive applications and appeals and forward them forthwith. Where an application is given to an APIO, five days are added to the period for response.
• The PIO deals with requests and must render reasonable assistance to applicants, section 5(3).
• He may seek the assistance of any other officer, section 5(4), and that officer must assist. For the purpose of any contravention of the Act, the officer whose help was sought is treated as a PIO, section 5(5). This is why a penalty can fall on the officer who actually held the file.

3. Section 6: the request

• The request is made in writing or through electronic means, in English, Hindi or the official language of the area, with the prescribed fee, to the PIO or APIO, specifying the particulars of the information, section 6(1). If the applicant cannot write, the PIO must help him reduce an oral request to writing.
• The applicant need not give any reason for the request, nor any personal details except those needed to contact him, section 6(2).
• If the information is held by another public authority, or its subject matter is more closely connected with another authority, the application (or the relevant part) must be transferred to that authority and the applicant informed immediately. The transfer must be made as soon as practicable and in no case later than five days from receipt, section 6(3).

4. Section 7: disposal and time limits

• The PIO must, as expeditiously as possible and in any case within thirty days of receipt, either provide the information on payment of the fee or reject the request for a reason in sections 8 or 9, section 7(1).
• Where the information concerns the life or liberty of a person, it must be provided within forty-eight hours.
• Failure to decide within the period is a deemed refusal, section 7(2), which opens the first appeal.
• If further fees are payable, the PIO sends an intimation with the calculation, and the time between the intimation and payment is excluded from the thirty days, section 7(3). The intimation must also tell the applicant of his right to have the fee or form of access reviewed.
• Assistance must be given to a sensorily disabled person, section 7(4).
• Fees must be reasonable and no fee is charged from persons below the poverty line, section 7(5).
• Information is to be given free of charge if the authority fails to comply with the time limits, section 7(6).
• The PIO must consider a third party’s representation under section 11, section 7(7); where a third party is involved, the decision period becomes forty days (section 11(3)).
• A rejection must state the reasons, the period for appeal and the particulars of the appellate authority, section 7(8).
• Information is ordinarily given in the form in which it is sought unless that would disproportionately divert the authority’s resources or harm the record, section 7(9). This allows a change of form, not a refusal.

5. Fees

The Act leaves fees to rules made by the appropriate Government (section 27) or the competent authority (section 28). For Central public authorities the Right to Information Rules, 2012, notified by the Department of Personnel and Training on 31 July 2012, provide: an application fee of ten rupees, and the application should ordinarily not exceed 500 words, though it cannot be rejected for being longer (rule 3); two rupees per page for A-3 or smaller paper, actual cost for larger paper, samples and models, fifty rupees per diskette, and for inspection no fee for the first hour and five rupees for each further hour (rule 4); no fee from a person below the poverty line who files the certificate (rule 5); and payment in cash, by demand draft, banker’s cheque, postal order or electronically (rule 6).

Requests to Karnataka State public authorities are governed by the rules made by the State Government under section 27, and those to the High Court of Karnataka by rules of the Chief Justice as competent authority. Check the current State rules before stating figures for Karnataka.

6. Section 4 and section 6 together

The obligations of the public authority, which the April 2021 paper asked about, are therefore of two kinds: proactive duties under section 4 (maintain records, publish, disclose reasons), and reactive duties under sections 5 to 7 (designate officers, assist applicants, decide within time, give reasons for refusal). Add the duty under section 19(8) to comply with the Commission’s directions, and the duty under section 25(2) of each ministry to give the Commission the data for its annual report.

How this is examined

“What is right to information? Explain the obligations of public authorities under the RTI Act” (April 2021, 16 marks). Start with section 2(j) and section 3, then section 4 in detail, then sections 5 to 7 with the time limits, and close with Kishan Chand Jain. For problems, check the time limit first: if the PIO did not reply in thirty days, there is a deemed refusal under section 7(2), the information is now free under section 7(6), and the applicant may appeal under section 19(1).