Programme
RTI Assistance
Help drafting information requests that survive contact with a public authority — and reading the reply when it comes back thin.
Available in: English, Telugu
The Right to Information Act is one of the few tools an ordinary citizen can use without a lawyer. It is also routinely wasted on requests too vague to answer.
Drafting
We help you write your own request, in your own name. That matters: the right of appeal belongs to the applicant, so a request filed by us on your behalf would put the remedy in the wrong hands.
A workable request names the document, gives a date range, and addresses the public authority that actually holds the record. "All details of the project" invites a vagueness objection. "The work order and completion certificate for work number X, sanctioned between A and B" does not.
Reading a refusal
Not every unhelpful reply is unlawful. The Act contains genuine exemptions, and an authority is entitled to rely on them. The first step after a refusal is to identify the ground actually cited and ask whether it covers what you requested — often it does not, or covers only part of it.
First appeals
Where a reply is deficient, delayed, or improperly refused, a first appeal is available. Our clinics walk through how to frame one that engages the stated ground rather than restating the original request in a louder voice.
What we cover in a clinic
- Identifying the correct public authority and information officer
- Fee rules and the statutory timelines
- Framing a request specific enough to be answerable
- Distinguishing a legitimate exemption from an improper refusal
- Structuring a first appeal
Bring your original request and any reply received.