RIGHT TO INFORMATION ACT, 2005

  • RTI Act was passed in 2005 to empower all citizens of the country by providing them the right to information.
  • The provisions of the Act extends to whole of India except the State of Jammu and Kashmir.
  • It extends to all public authorities except military and other intelligent services excluded by the Schedule 2 of the RTI Act.
  • "information" means any material in any form, including records, documents, memos, e-mails, opinions, advices, press releases, circulars, orders, logbooks, contracts, reports, papers, samples, models, data material held in any electronic form and information relating to any private body which can be accessed by a public authority under any other law for the time being in force.
  • "right to information" includes the right to (i) inspection of work, documents, records(ii) taking notes, extracts or certified copies of documents or records(iii) taking certified samples of material (iv) obtaining information in the form of diskettes, floppies, tapes, video cassettes or in any other electronic mode or through printouts where such information is stored in a computer or in any other device.
  • “third party" means a person other than the citizen making a request for information and includes a public authority.
  • If the information sought under the Act does not relate to a public activity or interest or the information sought for intrudes into the privacy of a third person it cannot be disclosed. Nevertheless, if the information you seek for serves a larger public interest the same can be disclosed.

Excluded for the RTI ACT

Any information can be sought except those expressly excluded under section 8 of the RTI Act which includes –

  • Information, disclosure of which would prejudicially affect the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security, strategic, scientific or economic interests of the State, relation with foreign State or lead to incitement of an offence.
  • Information which has been expressly forbidden to be published by any court of law or tribunal or the disclosure of which may constitute contempt of court.
  • Information, the disclosure of which would cause a breach of privilege of Parliament or the State Legislature.
  • Information including commercial confidence, trade secrets or intellectual property, the disclosure of which would harm the competitive position of a third party, unless the competent authority is satisfied that larger public interest warrants the disclosure of such information.
  • Information available to a person in his fiduciary relationship, unless the competent authority is satisfied that the larger public interest warrants the disclosure of such information.
  • Information received in confidence from foreign Government.
  • Information, the disclosure of which would endanger the life or physical safety of any person or identify the source of information or assistance given in confidence for law enforcement or security purposes.
  • Information which would impede the process of investigation or apprehension or prosecution of offenders.
  • Cabinet papers including records of deliberations of the Council of Ministers, Secretaries and other officers.
  • Provided that the decisions of Council of Ministers, the reasons thereof, and the material on the basis of which the decisions were taken shall be made public after the decision has been taken, and the matter is complete, or over.
  • Provided further that those matters which come under the exemptions specified in this section shall not be disclosed.
  • Information which relates to personal information the disclosure of which has no relationship to any public activity or interest, or which would cause unwarranted invasion of the privacy of the individual unless the Central Public Information Officer or the State Public Information Officer or the appellate authority, as the case may be, is satisfied that the larger public interest justifies the disclosure of such information.

Third party information

  • Where a request is related to a third party the Public Information Officer(PIO) has to give a notice to the third party within 5 days of the receipt of the application asking the third party to make his submission. PIO has to take into account the submission of third party while disclosing the information. PIO can disclose the information if it serves larger public interests.

RTI applications

  • Every Government department has to designate a PIO with whom RTI applications can be submitted.
  • Required application fee has to be submitted with the form.
  • For central government departments the fee is Rs. 10/-. There shall be no fee for persons living below poverty line.
  • Though there is a prescribed format available (You can download the form here), there is no need that application should be in this format. It can be written on a plain paper.
  • Fee can be by Cash or DD in favour of the department.
  • Application can be submitted in person or by post.

Time Limit

Supply of information in normal course

30 days

Supply of information concerning life or liberty of a person

48 hours

Supply of information relating to a third party

Time for following the procedure prescribed.

Where the applicant is asked to pay additional fee

Intervening period between informaing the applicant and payment is excluded while calculating the limits

Appeal

  • Appeals can be filed with the appellate authority mentioned in the letter of rejection along with the original application form.
  • No prescribed format and no fee for this.
  • Complaint /Appeal can also be filed with Central Information Commission and through website of RTI.()

RTI in Indian Railways

  • Being a public organization, Railways is bound by RTI Act.
  • Any information required by any person can be obtained from the PIO on application and payment of prescribed fees which are as follows:

For information under Sub-Sec.(1) of Sec.6 of RTI Act (which relates to an information from PIO)

Rs.10/-

For copy of records

Rs.2/- for each page (A4/A3 Size) created or copied

For inspection of records

No fee for first hour, thereafter fee of Rs.5/- for each subsequent hour(or fraction thereof)

For information on diskette or floppy

Rs.50/-

  • The fees can be paid by way of cash at Headquarters or Divisional Cash office or at any Railway Station office Booking office.  Alternatively by DD/Bankers cheque/IPO drawn in favour of FA&CAO for Zonal HQrs. & Sr.DFM of the respective divisional office.
  • Information regarding Material Management, Freight Management, Tenders and other Public Information of Zonal Railways has been made available on Zonal Railways website. Names of Divisional as well as Zonal PIO/APIO also have been published on the Zonal Railways website.

Download the Application form for APPLICATION FOR SEEKING INFORMATION UNDER THE RIGHT TO INFORMATION ACT,2005

Comments

D/Sir, i wanted mutual trsfr. i am in pending of DAR Second party is fair . his file came mine HQ for accptence bt our HQ not granted accptence and returned file his HQ. now I h'v cleared mine DAR cash. now i want his file's information and back mine HQ for NOC, HOW?

arun@kumar

Fri, 04/04/2014 - 22:56

Sir if a rly employ who is getting grade pay 2400. but after some time he takes mutual transfer with grade pay 2400.then after releve when he joined other division then his grade pay converd in 1900 grade pay & his suvidha pass also converd in 2 red ,1fst pass .if any one who know my answer that its is above right or wrong then pls tell me with rly board letter no. when i putted my mutual file that time my grade pay 1900.my mail [email protected] pls pls pls.my date of joining 15.10.2007

 

ubeandroth

Tue, 01/07/2014 - 16:01

sir,

   my name is MOHAMMED KASIM UBAIDULLA.MP .iam the candidate of ST quota and Lakshadweep .

ihave successfully passed my written exam and pet and icould nt callig from the further steps of medical and certificate varification and my collegeus are called the tests and and they got appointed.

Sir i am working in westerRailway.ahmedabad sir i request to you that my dasigenation ac machenic as a acci in ac coach i wants informasion to you about in helpar with acci in ac coach becauce my office incharg not give us benifit to helpar.sir i requst to you information about helpar by rti railway rules

S. RAVI SHANKAR

Fri, 12/09/2014 - 21:56

Railway staffs are engaged for invigilation by RRB of various functionaries out of many one is Sr.Invigilator where it is not prescribed in the bd's guideline RBE 2012. Since not prescribed RRB deprives sr.invig by under paying though they fall under the category clerk attached to supervisor/Officer incharge.   actually as per si no. 10 of RBE 2012 circular, Rs.1025 has to be paid but only rs.625 is paid now RRB/MAS says that sr.inv are not prescribed desig and paid honorarium on it own. no prescribed guideline For Sr.inv then in the absence of prescribed guideline how rs.625 is being paid

B.Sanjeev kumar

Thu, 25/06/2015 - 15:57

Sir my name is B.sanjeev kumar.i'm working as TTE at coimbatore in salem division.southern railway.i want to transfer my home town guntakal.but mutual no body is from there.l have to know the one way transfer rules.any body please explain.

anjul srivastava

Wed, 16/09/2015 - 13:50

Can anyone plz help me out..
Sir i was a Apprentice Technician III in NCR Jhansi workshop..I was appointed on 10+2 basis and undergone a training of 03 years..with one grade lower stipend 5200-20200 + 1800(5200+1800=7000 group D).but now i have successfully completed my training nd now working as a technicianIII but still my fixation is not as same as of Group C Worker 5200-20200 + 1900(5830+1900=8460 Group C).comparatively dsl loco shed, C&W, AC Loco shed.of jhansi are getting the same fixation but not us...Can anyone plz help me out with the rule according to which we are supposed to get restructuring of fixation after the successful completion of my 03 years training..

chandrakant mani

Wed, 16/09/2015 - 16:47

R/s,

      I am working as a Technician Gr.-III /M/Fitter and My service length is almost 3 year , I want to know about Railway Board Letter No.      E(0)III/2014/PL/05 dated 31.08.15. Is there any problem for Service Length about  Mutual Transfer according to this Letter No. E(0)III/2014/PL/05  dated 31.08.15 .

                               Sir , please clarify me above noted matter on my email ( [email protected] )

 

    Thanking You !

      

amardeep123456

Tue, 13/10/2015 - 13:02

Sir, this is Amardeep bharti JE(Electrical Agra Divs.) according to this letter no. E(NG)III/2014/PL/05 dated 31.08.2015 its given that in case of nongazetted railway employee, no inter railways transfer request will be considered till completion of five years of joining railways. Sir I want to know that is this applicable in case of mutual transfer or not? Kindly clarify about this matter asap. I would be thankful to you.
Contact: 9793582505
Email: [email protected]

dr.jashuva

Sat, 07/11/2015 - 10:44

Sir,
My uncle was working as sse in mas division. Now he made medical unfit in all categories of railway services. He is under medical board for 1year. During this period he doesnt get salary. But he is havn gm3 form. After completion of medical board we asked to write medical board period as duty but they told we wont write duty because you are medical unfit all class. His leaves also completed in first 3months remaining months he didnt get salary. Kindly suggest anythng posible to get salary with rb letter no. To my mail [email protected]
Thank you.

Ankush chauhan

Thu, 31/12/2015 - 00:18

sir/madam please tell me how long it take a time to transfer SERVICE RECORD of employee who is transferred from Delhi divn to Umb divn.it will almost 18 months ago n now divn tell me that we would not consider our name in seniority list because ur CR is not in the divn.

Sir,
मैने टेकनिशियन के साथ म्यूच्यूअल के लिऐ ऐप्लाय
कीया था, पर अभी ऊसका प्रमोशन जेई मे ह़ो गया है,
तो क्या अभी मै यहा से रिलीज होने वाला हू तो ईसमे मेरा क्या
होगा,
जल्दी बताईयेगा सर