"Right to Information Act - 2005" commonly known as "RTI Act" is an act of the Parliament of India which aims to provide for establishing a practical regime for dissemination of information to citizens and replaces the erstwhile "Freedom of information Act, 2002". Under the provisions of the Act, any citizen of India may request information from a "public authority" (a body of Government or "instrumentality of State") which is required to reply expeditiously (or) within thirty days. The Act also requires every public authority to computerize their records for wide dissemination and to proactively classify certain categories of information so that the citizens need minimum recourse to request for information formally.

 

This law was passed by Parliament on 15 June 2005 and came fully into force on 12 October 2005. Every day, over 4,800 RTI applications are filed. In the first ten years of the commencement of the act over 17,500,000 applications have been filed.

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​Information disclosure in India is restricted by the "Official Secrets Act, 1923" and various other special laws, which the new RTI Act relaxes to some extent. Right to Information codifies as a fundamental right of the citizens of India. RTI has proven to be very useful, but is counteracted by the "Whistle blowers Act".

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Raising an RTI...!

You can raise an RTI request either 'online' (provided there is a dedicated online channel for the information authority/office to whom/which you're willing to raise the request) or 'offline' (i.e. by visiting the office, sending a mail etc.)​

 

All RTIs related to Union Government, Parliament, PSBs, PSUs and all central govt. institutions could be raised online through All India RTI Online portal. Apart from Union Government and other National institutions which have online portals to file RTI requests, ONLY 2 state governments - Delhi & Maharashtra have Online RTI portals among 28 states and 8 Union Territories.