One of my clients recently had a case which I am explaining below and if you are stuck in such similar situation, here is what to do.
Note: Due to attorney-client privilege, I cannot disclose complete case details or identify the actual parties involved. However, I am sharing the essential facts and legal approach so that if you find yourself in a similar situation, you can understand the available solutions and legal remedies.
TL;DR: An RTI no response is legally a refusal. Once 30 days pass without a reply, you can file a first appeal, then a second appeal to the State Information Commission, which can order the information to be released, award you compensation, and penalise the officer. A delay of 500 days is a hurdle, not a bar, because the Act allows late appeals if you can explain the delay.
Anand Kulkarni filed an application under the Right to Information Act, 2005 with the Madhya Pradesh Medical Council in Bhopal on 3 March 2024. He asked one narrow question: how much stipend had been paid to postgraduate students at a private medical college in Indore. He expected a reply inside a month. Nothing came.
The first month went. Then the second. He sent reminders. Then another. By the time he walked into the Chamber of Advocate Sudhir Rao in late July 2025, more than 500 days had passed and the Medical Council had not sent a single line of response.
An earlier attempt had gone nowhere. A general practitioner had told him the file was "under process" and left it there. No first appeal was drafted. No second appeal was filed. Nobody had asked the Commission to look at why the officer had simply not replied to a request that the statute obliges him to answer.
Advocate Sudhir Rao and his office took a different route. They treated the silence for what it legally is: a deemed refusal. A first appeal went in with a condonation application explaining the delay, followed by a second appeal before the State Information Commission. The Commission called for the records, and the public authority was directed to furnish the information sought. Penalty proceedings against the officer were pressed separately. Advocate Sudhir Rao's expertise in this domain helped secure the order in favour of the client. What turned the matter was procedure, not argument.
Key Facts of the Case
- Application filed on 3 March 2024 with the Madhya Pradesh Medical Council, a public authority, under Section 6 of the RTI Act, 2005.
- Information sought: stipend paid to postgraduate students at a private medical college in Indore.
- The statutory 30-day window under Section 7(1) expired around 2 April 2024 with no reply.
- Silence beyond the deadline is a deemed refusal under Section 7(8) of the Act.
- Over 500 days lapsed before any appeal, so both the 30-day and 90-day windows had run out.
- Delay is condonable under the provisos to Section 19(1) and Section 19(3) if sufficient cause is shown.
- The Commission can direct disclosure, award compensation under Section 19(8)(b), and penalise the officer under Section 20(1) up to Rs 25,000.
- Disclosure. A direction to the public authority to furnish the information within a fixed time.
- Compensation. Section 19(8)(b) allows the Commission to require the authority to compensate the applicant for loss or other detriment suffered.
- Penalty on the officer. Section 20(1) provides Rs 250 for each day of delay, capped at Rs 25,000.
- Disciplinary recommendation. Section 20(2) lets the Commission recommend action against the officer to the authority.
- The RTI application, with the date you filed it.
- The postal receipt, speed post acknowledgement or online reference number. This is the document the whole appeal rests on.
- Any reminder letters or emails you sent.
- Any reply, even a partial or evasive one.
- The first appeal and its acknowledgement, if already filed.
What the Law Says When a Public Authority Stays Silent
Section 6 of the RTI Act, 2005 lets any citizen ask a public authority for information. Section 7 sets the clock. Thirty days from the day the application is received. Where the request concerns the life or liberty of a person, forty-eight hours. Within that window the officer must either hand over the information or reject the request in writing, with reasons, and tell the applicant which appellate authority to approach.
Doing nothing is not an option the statute leaves open. Once the thirty days run out with no decision, the request is treated as refused. That is the provision people miss: silence is not "pending", it is a refusal, and a refusal is appealable.
This matters because the clock keeps running. Every day the officer sits on the file is a day of statutory default, and the Act has a specific remedy for that.
What Should I Do About an RTI No Response?
There are two routes, and they are not mutually exclusive.
First appeal — to the senior officer in the same department
Section 19(1) gives you a first appeal to the First Appellate Authority, who is an officer senior to the one who sat on your file. The appeal should normally go in within thirty days of the date the reply was due, or within thirty days of receiving a decision. The proviso to Section 19(1) allows a late appeal if you can show sufficient cause.
The appeal is not a fresh RTI application. It is a one-page letter saying: application filed on such date, no reply received, please direct release of the information. Attach the application, the postal receipt or acknowledgement, and any reminders. The Act expects the first appellate authority to decide within thirty days, extendable by fifteen with reasons recorded.
Second appeal — to the Information Commission
If the first appellate authority also says nothing, or rules against you, the second appeal goes to the State Information Commission (or the Central Information Commission for central public authorities). Section 19(3) sets ninety days, counted from the date the first appellate authority's decision was due or was actually received. The same proviso applies — a late appeal can be entertained for sufficient cause.
The Commission is where the matter gets teeth. It can call for records, summon the officer, direct disclosure, award compensation and levy a penalty. This is the stage that usually produces a reply.
Or a complaint under Section 18
Some matters are less about the missing paper and more about the officer who would not do his job. Section 18 allows a complaint to the Commission where an application was refused, or not replied to within time, or where the reply was knowingly false or incomplete. Many applicants run the second appeal and the complaint together. There is no prescribed fee for an appeal or a complaint under the Act.
The 500-Day Delay: a Hurdle, Not a Bar
A year and a half is a long gap, and no one should pretend otherwise. Both the thirty-day and ninety-day windows had closed. The case therefore turned on condonation, and condonation turns on facts, not sentiment.
Commissions ask what the applicant was doing in the meantime. "I did not know about appeals" is usually thin, particularly for an educated applicant. A file lying with a practitioner who said the matter was under process and then did nothing is a different kind of explanation, and a Commission can weigh it. Add that nothing at all came from the public authority in that period, and the equities shift.
Keep the delay application short, supported by an affidavit, with dates in a table. Do not dress it up.
One caution: we have one side of this. The Medical Council's account of why the file was not answered has not been stated here, and a Commission will hear it before deciding on penalty.
What the Commission Can Actually Order
The penalty is personal to the officer. That single fact explains why departments that ignored letters for a year suddenly find the file when the Commission issues notice.
Penalty is not mechanical. The officer gets a reasonable opportunity of being heard and can argue that the delay had a reasonable cause, or that he was not the officer holding the post when the application landed. Commissions do decline penalty in such cases while still ordering disclosure. So the information and the punishment are two separate questions.
How Long Does It Realistically Take?
Shorter than most people fear, longer than anyone would like. The first appeal is on paper and often decided in a few weeks if the department is responsive. Commission hearings vary widely by state and by docket. In some matters a hearing is listed within a few months; in others it takes considerably longer. If the information is needed for a court proceeding, an assessment or a deadline, say so in the appeal itself — urgency noted on the file is urgency a Registrar can act on.
What to Keep, and What to Send
Photograph or scan everything before you file anything:
If you want a view on whether a second appeal is worth filing, send the application, proof of filing, and a two-line note on what you asked for and what you need it for. That is enough to work out whether there is an appeal to be made or an explanation to be given. You can write to us through /contact-us or request a slot at /book. Chamber No. 86, Supreme Court of India, New Delhi 110001. Phone +91 97295 06771, email me@sudhirrao.com.
And be prepared for a candid answer. Where the information sought is exempt under Section 8, or where it simply does not exist with that authority, an appeal may achieve nothing beyond a written record. That is worth knowing before you spend a year on it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is there a fee to file an RTI appeal?
No. The RTI Act does not prescribe a fee for the first appeal, the second appeal or a complaint under Section 18. The Rs 10 application fee is separate. Where the Commission finds the authority at fault it can also award costs.
Can I file the appeal online?
It depends on the public authority. Central government bodies can be approached through the central RTI online portal, which also accepts first appeals. State public authorities generally require the state portal, post or physical filing before the State Information Commission. Check the Commission's registry page before you travel; filing an appeal in the wrong forum is a wasted month.
What if the officer says the information does not exist?
Then the Commission's job is to test that claim. If it accepts the position, there is nothing to disclose, and the appeal ends there on the information point. A penalty for the delay can still be considered separately, because the absence of records does not by itself excuse an unanswered application.
Can I get compensation for the delay?
Section 19(8)(b) permits it. In practice compensation is granted where the applicant can point to a concrete loss — a court date missed, money spent chasing the reply, an application that lapsed because the record was withheld. Vague hardship claims are usually not allowed.
Does the officer get punished personally?
Yes, if the Commission is satisfied that the grounds under Section 20(1) are made out — refusal to receive the application, delay without reasonable cause, malafide denial, giving incorrect or incomplete information, destroying records or obstructing the process. The penalty is imposed on the officer, not on the department.
How late is too late to file an appeal?
There is no outer limit written into the Act. Both provisos turn on "sufficient cause", and Commissions have entertained appeals well over a year late where the explanation held up. But the older the delay, the stronger the explanation has to be the stronger the explanation has to be. Build it around dates you can prove — the postal receipt, the reminders, the date the earlier practitioner told you the file was under process, the date you gave up on him — rather than around how long ago it all feels.
Can I file a fresh RTI application instead of appealing the old one?
You can, and sometimes that is the faster road. A fresh application restarts the thirty-day clock and needs no condonation. What it does not do is preserve the record of the original default, which is the only thing a penalty proceeding can be built on. Where the information is still current and the officer has since changed, a fresh application plus a complaint about the old one often runs better than a single late appeal. Ask which fits before filing.
Does the RTI no response mean I have lost the right to the information?
No. Silence is a deemed refusal, and a deemed refusal is appealable. The right survives the officer's inaction. What the delay does affect is the strength of the explanation you will have to give, and in some matters the usefulness of the record by the time it arrives.
This is general information about the RTI Act, 2005 and how appeals against a non-reply are usually handled. It is not legal advice on your own matter, and it does not create an advocate-client relationship. Deadlines, condonation and penalty all turn on the facts of your file.
Advocate Sudhir Rao, Supreme Court of India