Allahabad HC proposes reasonable fee for filing application under RTI
24 Jun, 2012The Allahabad High Court has proposed reducing the RTI application fees from Rs. 500/- to Rs. 10/-, which is currently the fee for the filing of application is as per the Central Government Fee rules.
The Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005 gave powers to certain authorities to frame their own Fee rules for furnishing the information to the information seekers. The Allahabad High Court had fixed Rs. 500/- as the application fee for supplying filing an application under the RTI Act. The Public Information Officer (PIO) informed the Central Information Commission (CIC) that the Allahabad High Court had revisited its rules and the amended rules were pending with the UP state government for notification in the gazette for more two months.
Taking note of the delay on the part of the State Government to publish the rules in the gazette, the Chief Information Commissioner of the CIC Mr. Satyananda Mishra wondered “Although the High Court has been reminding the state government to publish the rules urgently, it is rather strange that the state government should be taking so much time to publish it in their gazette. We hope that the modified rules would be published soon and would bring relief to information seekers.” However, the CIC did not issue any directions to the State Government.
The Department of Personnel and Training, has been trying to persuade all the competent authorities to make uniform Fee rules in respect of the RTI Act.