First Appeal under RTI Act
Drafting and filing a First Appeal to the First Appellate Authority when the PIO gives no response within 30 days or gives an unsatisfactory response.
A First Appeal under Section 19(1) of the Right to Information Act, 2005 is the statutory remedy when an RTI application has gone wrong — no response from the Public Information Officer within 30 days, an outright rejection, an incomplete or evasive reply, or a demand for an unreasonable additional fee. The appeal is filed before the First Appellate Authority (FAA): an officer in the same public authority who is senior in rank to the PIO whose response (or non-response) is being challenged.
The window to file is 30 days from the date of the PIO's response, or from the date the response was due. The FAA must dispose of the appeal within 30 days, extendable to a total of 45 days where reasons for the delay are recorded in writing. No fee is charged for a First Appeal.
The appeal succeeds or fails on its grounds. A First Appeal that points to specific provisions of the Act the PIO violated — Section 7(1) timeline breach, Section 8 wrongful exemption, Section 7(3) excess fee — and asks for relief in concrete terms gives the FAA something definite to rule on.
In Uttarakhand, First Appeals against state-department PIOs go to the FAA designated within the same department, typically a senior officer at the Dehradun head office whose name and address the PIO is required to disclose in the original response. For central public authorities (railways, banks, posts, EPFO, defence ministries) the appeal is filed through the central RTI portal at rtionline.gov.in to the FAA notified for that authority. State public authorities also accept hard-copy appeals delivered to the department by post or in person.
If the FAA decision is unsatisfactory, or no decision is given within 45 days, the next step is a Second Appeal before the Uttarakhand Information Commission at RTI Bhawan, Ladpur, Dehradun-248008 (uic.uk.in).
NyaySetu Law's First Appeal service drafts the appeal under Section 19(1) with grounds keyed to the specific RTI Act provisions breached, identifies the correct FAA, and structures the prayers and reliefs to be requested. You file the appeal directly with the department.