RTI Application Generator

About the RTI Application Generator

Any citizen of India can ask a public authority for information it holds — records, file notings, letters, data — under the Right to Information Act, 2005, without giving a reason. This generator writes the application to the Public Information Officer (PIO) of a Central or State public authority, or to an Assistant PIO for forwarding: your details, the specific information you want as numbered items, the period it covers, the form you want it in, the fee, and the standard requests to transfer the application if another authority holds the information (s.6(3)) and to tell you of any further fee (s.7(3)).

It writes in English, Hindi or Marathi — the Act allows English, Hindi or the official language of the area (s.6(1)) — handles the Rs. 10 fee by postal order, draft, online or cash, the BPL exemption, and life-or-liberty requests that must be answered in 48 hours. It checks the 500-word guidance of the RTI Rules, shows the reply deadline (30 days, 35 through an Assistant PIO, 40 for third-party information) and your appeal dates, and prepares clean text for the RTI Online portal.

Common uses

• Finding out the status of a passport, pension, scholarship, tax refund or licence application.
• Getting copies of file notings and correspondence on a decision that affects you.
• Asking a municipality about work orders, budgets or repairs in your area.
• Writing the application in Hindi or Marathi for a local office.

Fees and the BPL exemption

For Central public authorities the application fee is Rs. 10 (RTI Rules 2012, r.3), paid in cash against a receipt, or by demand draft, banker’s cheque or Indian Postal Order payable to the Accounts Officer of the public authority, or electronically where available (r.6). Copies cost Rs. 2 a page (A4/A3); inspection is free for the first hour and Rs. 5 for each further hour (r.4). No fee is charged from a person below the poverty line who attaches a copy of the BPL certificate (s.7(5); r.5). If the reply comes late, the information must be given free (s.7(6)). State public authorities follow their own State’s RTI rules for the fee and how to pay it — enter the amount your State prescribes.

Deadlines and appeals

• Reply: within 30 days of receipt (s.7(1)); +5 days if you file through an Assistant PIO (s.5(2)); 40 days where third-party information is involved (s.11(3)); 48 hours where it concerns the life or liberty of a person (proviso to s.7(1)). No reply in time is a deemed refusal (s.7(2)).
• First appeal: to the officer senior to the PIO in the same authority, within 30 days of the deadline or of the reply (s.19(1)); it should be decided within 30 days, at most 45 (s.19(6)).
• Second appeal: to the Central or State Information Commission within 90 days of the date the first appeal was decided or should have been (s.19(3)).

Writing questions that get answers

The Act gives access to information held by the authority — records, documents, file notings, e-mails, data in electronic form (s.2(f), (j)) — not to explanations or opinions. So ask “copies of the file notings and correspondence on file No. X”, not “why was my file delayed?”. Give file numbers, dates and the period. Keep the whole application under 500 words, excluding the two addresses (r.3) — the standard paragraphs this generator adds take about 180 of them in English, which leaves roughly 320 for your questions. The PIO cannot reject it only for being longer, but long multi-subject applications invite delay. Information which relates to personal information of others is exempt (s.8(1)(j) as substituted by the DPDP Act 2023), though access can still be allowed in the public interest (s.8(2)).

Hindi, Marathi and RTI Online

Hindi and Marathi applications use the Act’s own terms (केन्द्रीय लोक सूचना अधिकारी; जन माहिती अधिकारी) and Indian date formats; Marathi uses Devanagari numerals. Download them as DOCX or print and “Save as PDF” — those use your device’s fonts; the PDF engine here draws Latin scripts only. RTI Online is for Central Government public authorities only; its request box accepts up to 3,000 characters of English letters, digits and a few symbols, and longer text can be attached as a PDF. The Copy for RTI Online box gives you a cleaned-up version.

Sources

• Right to Information Act 2005 — ss.2(f), 2(j), 3, 4(1)(b)(xvi), 5(2), 6, 7, 8 (s.8(1)(j) as substituted), 11, 19
• Right to Information Rules 2012 (G.S.R. 603(E)) — rr.3–6
• Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023 — s.44(3)
• RTI Online — guidelines for filing a request

Limitations

• A template, not legal advice. Whether information is exempt (s.8, s.9) is decided by the PIO and, on appeal, the Information Commission.
• State fees and payment modes differ; check your State’s RTI rules for the fee, how to pay it and any form they prescribe.
• The tool does not translate: type your questions in the language you choose. The PDF download is for English; use DOCX or Print for Hindi and Marathi.
• Court holidays and postal delays are not considered in the deadlines; count from the day the PIO actually receives the application.

Privacy

Everything happens in your browser. Your name, address and questions are not uploaded or stored by MySmartCoPilot. If you tick Keep a draft in this browser, the form is saved in this browser’s local storage until you untick it.