No fee to be paid for appeals and complaints related to RTI

Times of India‎‎: Thiruvananthapuram: Sunday, May 22, 2016.

State information commission has said that the RTI applicant needs to pay fees only for the first application for information and no fees shall be paid for appeals or complaints. The commission issued the notification in the wake of instances where applicants were made to pay fees for appeals and complaints as well.

The complaints filed before the commission as per section 18 of Right to Information act and appeals filed as per section 19 does not require fees, the commission said.

It has also been pointed out that postal orders, money orders will not be considered as fees for matters under the control of state government. Section 6 of RTI act says that the applicant has to pay the fees as prescribed by the state government while filing an application for information. The state government has determined Rs 10 as application fee as per Kerala Right to Information ( Regulation of fee and cost) rules.