How this works
- Pick a case. The generator reads that case's record and works out which ministry or authority actually holds the file, then drafts the questions that fit it.
- Your name and address are typed into the letter in your own browser. Nothing you enter here is sent anywhere, stored, or seen by this site. Filing an RTI requires your real name and a real address, so use them.
- Read the draft before you send it. Edit anything that does not fit. You are the applicant, not us.
Your application
Where to send it, what it costs, and what happens when they stall
Filing it
Central ministries and their departments take online applications at rtionline.gov.in, which is the fastest route and gives you a registration number the same day. Post also works: address the envelope to the CPIO at the address in the letter, by registered post or speed post, and keep the receipt.
The fee
₹10, by Indian Postal Order, demand draft, banker's cheque or court fee stamp, made out to the Accounts Officer of that authority. Online filing takes a card or UPI payment. If you hold a BPL card there is no fee at all under Section 7(5), and the authority may not invent one.
The clock
Thirty days under Section 7(1), from the day they receive it. Forty-eight hours if the information concerns life or liberty. If they transfer it to another authority under Section 6(3) they have five days to do so, and the clock restarts from receipt there. Silence past the deadline is a deemed refusal, which is a refusal you can appeal.
When they stall
File a first appeal under Section 19(1) with the First Appellate Authority of the same office, free, within thirty days of the refusal or of the deadline passing. If that fails, a second appeal goes to the Central or State Information Commission under Section 19(3). A CPIO who refuses without cause can be fined ₹250 a day up to ₹25,000 under Section 20. That penalty is imposed rarely, which tells you something, but the section exists and citing it concentrates minds.
This is a template, not legal advice. It is drafted from the public record in this ledger and from the plain text of the Right to Information Act, 2005. Check the addressee and the wording before you file, and take proper advice if a matter is in court.