Payment of fee under the Right to information Act. 2005

Payment of fee under the Right to Information Act. 2005 – scope of subsection (3) of Section 7 of the Act

The Undersigned is directed to say that a question is raised from time to time whether a Public information Officer (PIO) has power to charge fee under Section 7(3) of the RTI Act. 2005 in addition to fee prescribed under Sections 6(1), 7(1) and 7(5) of the Act.

Section 6(1) of the Act enables the Government to prescribe application fee and sub-sections (1) and (5) of Section 7 to prescribe fee in addition to application fee for supply of information. On the other hand sub-section (3) of Section 7 provides the procedure which a PIO has to follow for realising the fee prescribed under sub-sections (1) and (5) of the Section. Details of fees that can be charged by a public authority under the Central Government are contained in the Right to information (Regulation of Fee & Cost) Rules, 2005. The Rules or the Act do not give power to the PIO to charge any fee other than prescribed in the Fee and Cost Rules. Attention in this regard is invited to following extracts from the common order passed by the Central information Commission in Appeal No. CICIMAIAI 2008/0185 (Shri K.K. Kishore Vs. Institute of Company Secretaries of lndia) and Complaint No.CICMIBIC12007/00943 (Shri Subodh Jain Vs. Dy. Commissioner of Police)