Payment of RTI fee

In line with the strongest and finest public traditions of our country, some central public authorities continue to return RTI applications on the pretext that the name of the payee has been mentioned incorrectly on the Postal Order / Draft / Banker’s Cheque. Some have also been returning postal orders on the ground that the payee’s name has been left blank by the RTI Applicant. The applicable rules of the central govt provide that payment can be made universally in the name of the ‘Accounts Officer’ of the particular public authority, but some offices have been returning such payment instruments stating that the payment should be made through a different nomenclature such as ‘Section Officer’ etc. This approach is grossly incorrect and the Govt of India had, in fact, in December 2008 apprised all concerned that payment had to be accepted when made in the name of the ‘Accounts Officer’ for that was inherently provided by the statutory rules. Anyone facing such a problem may quote this letter issued by the DoPT specifically in this regard. Moreover, blank IPOs cannot also be refused since the public authority has the liberty to fill them up in whichever manner that it may deem fit without burdening RTI Applicants with a search operation for the name in which the IPO is to be filled. Some establishments have not even updated their websites with such information and then they expect the public to know exactly the particulars RTI Applicants need to fill up before processing their application. It is high time that the PIOs are sensitised that one can delay with these tactics but not deny.