SECOND APPEAL OR COMPLAINT TO THE INFORMATION COMMISSION
Under the Right to Information Act, 2005 (the Act)
Presented on: __________, at __________
To: The Registrar, __________
- Nature of this filing. __________
- Appellant. __________, __________.
- Officers of the public authority. The public authority is __________. The application was addressed to the Public Information Officer, __________.
- Particulars of the application. Filed on __________, the application asked for: __________
- Orders challenged.
- Brief facts. __________
- Time and remedies. Rule 10 of the applicable rules lets the Commission consider an appeal only after the first appeal has been decided or forty-five days have passed since it was preferred.
- Prayer. I ask the Commission to (a) direct the Public Information Officer to provide the information sought, answering each question, within a time the Commission fixes and, where the time limits were missed, free of charge under section 7(6); (b) impose on the Public Information Officer the penalty under section 20(1) of two hundred and fifty rupees for each day until the information is furnished, not exceeding twenty-five thousand rupees in all, if it finds that the request was refused or the information withheld without reasonable cause; and (c) require the public authority under section 19(8)(b) to compensate me for the loss or other detriment I have suffered.
- Grounds. __________ Under section 19(5) of the Act the onus of proving that the denial was justified lies on the Public Information Officer who denied the request.
- Other information. The subject matter of this appeal or complaint has not been filed before, is not pending before, and has not been decided by any Commissioner of the Commission.
- Documents enclosed. Each is a copy self-attested by me and paged, listed in the index that follows this filing: (i) the RTI application, with proof of the fee paid or of the below-poverty-line exemption, and of its dispatch or delivery; (ii) the reply of the Public Information Officer, if any; (iii) the first appeal, with proof of filing; (iv) the order of the First Appellate Authority, if any; (v) __________.
- Hearing. __________
VERIFICATION
I, __________, the appellant named above, verify that the facts stated in paragraphs 1 to 12 are true to my knowledge and belief, that the documents listed in paragraph 11 are true copies of the originals, and that I have concealed nothing material.
Verified at __________ on __________.
LEGAL BASIS
Punjab: A second appeal lies under section 19(3) of the Right to Information Act, 2005 against the decision of the First Appellate Authority, or against its absence, within ninety days from the date on which the decision should have been made or was actually received, and the proviso lets the Commission admit a later appeal for sufficient cause; a complaint lies under section 18(1) on the grounds that section lists. The Punjab State Information Commission, the addressee of this filing, hears and decides it under rules 8 to 12 of the Punjab Right to Information Rules, 2017: rule 8 asks for the format in the Appendix, whose last item is the appellant's verification, with copies of the application, the reply, the first appeal and the order, authenticated and verified by the appellant, and an index; rule 9 lets an incomplete appeal be returned for its defects to be removed; rule 10(3) treats the first appeal as exhausted once it is decided or forty-five days pass without a final order; and rule 12 gives at least seven clear days' notice of the hearing, attended in person, through an authorised representative or by video conference where available. Section 19(8)(b) lets the Commission require the public authority to compensate the appellant for loss or other detriment, section 20(1) makes it impose on a State Public Information Officer who acted without reasonable cause a penalty of two hundred and fifty rupees each day, not exceeding twenty-five thousand rupees in all, and section 19(7) makes its decision binding.
Chandigarh: For a public authority under the Union Territory of Chandigarh Administration, section 2(a)(i) of the Right to Information Act, 2005 makes the Central Government the appropriate Government, so a second appeal under section 19(3), within the same ninety days, and a complaint under section 18(1) go to the Central Information Commission, the addressee of this filing, which decides them under rules 8 to 12 of the Right to Information Rules, 2012 on the same terms: the Appendix format ending in the appellant's verification, authenticated copies with an index, the return of an incomplete appeal, the first appeal treated as exhausted once decided or forty-five days after it was preferred, and seven clear days' notice of a hearing. The Commission accepts a second appeal or complaint online, with the documents signed and self-attested before they are scanned. Its powers under sections 19(8)(b) and 20(1) are those set out for Punjab, and its decision binds under section 19(7).
PERSONAL DATA NOTICE
This notice is given under the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023.
The purpose of collecting personal data in this second appeal or complaint is to identify the appellant and the officers whose decisions are challenged, to record the application, the replies, the first appeal and the dates that decide whether the filing is in time, and to give the Information Commission an address for the notice of hearing and its decision.
The record will be held by __________ and may be shared with the Information Commission and its registry, the Public Information Officer, the First Appellate Authority and the public authority, and the appellant's authorised representative.
If the matter does not proceed, the personal data will be retained for 90 days and then erased. If the matter proceeds, the record will be retained for the transaction or authority matter plus 12 months, except where a statute requires a longer named retention period.
A person named in this document may request correction or erasure where the purpose has ended, withdraw consent for future consent-based processing, or raise a grievance by writing to __________. The record-holder should acknowledge and reply within 30 days.
Data minimisation: this document does not collect a full Aadhaar number, an Aadhaar-card copy, a password or bank credentials.
Personal-data instruction: __________.
SIGNATURE
Appellant or complainant: __________