Hyderabad Mail: Telangana: Wednesday, 29 July 2026.
A law student has taken the Telangana government to the High Court over what he describes as the near-total collapse of the state’s online Right to Information (RTI) system. He presented official data showing that only 17 of more than 3,300 registered public authorities are actually using the portal to respond to citizens.
Banappagari Vinay Reddy
filed a Public Interest Litigation in the High Court of Telangana. He wants the
court to order the government to fix the Telangana RTI Online Portal
(rti.telangana.gov.in) and introduce virtual hearings at the Telangana
Information Commission. He says these steps are required by Supreme Court
orders that the state has ignored for over two years.
Speaking to Hyderabad Mail, Reddy said he has been filing RTI applications since finishing his intermediate education in 2015–16. He turned to the courts after years of frustration. The RTI process offered no way to track applications and provided a digital portal that barely worked.
The petitioner received data through his own RTI application to the Information Technology, Electronics and Communications (ITE&C) Department. The state added 3,323 public authorities to the RTI portal since its launch in December 2022. Only 17 actually use it to respond to applicants. This means 3,306 authorities, or 99.48 percent, do not comply.
The same data shows that applicants filed 17,865 RTI applications through the portal between December 2023 and 2025, but officials resolved only 377, a rate of just 2.1 percent. The situation is even worse for appeals: applicants filed 2,502 First Appeals, but officials did not resolve a single one.
Reddy said, “Out of 17,000 RTI applications, officials gave replies to only 325. The rest remained pending, and the backlog has grown. Now, applicants have filed 25,000 RTI applications. Yet officials have given very few replies, fewer than a thousand people received a response in five months.”
Only 17 authorities using portal
Major public authorities, such as the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC), the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA), and Osmania University, reportedly do not use the portal. The Telangana Information Commission’s 2023 annual report lists 17,768 designated Public Information Officers (PIOs) and 2,228 First Appellate Authorities statewide. These numbers are much higher than the roughly 3,300 authorities currently registered on the portal.
Reddy compared Telangana’s approach with other states. The National Informatics Centre (NIC) gives RTI portal software to states for free. Telangana, however, paid a private vendor consortium about Rs 2.07 crore for the portal’s design and hosting. More than Rs 1.51 crore has already been paid.
Reddy’s second main issue is that the Telangana Information Commission still refuses to hold hearings online. Reddy explained, “The RTI Act’s appeal process allows applicants to file a First Appeal if they do not receive a reply in 30 days and to file a Second Appeal with the State Information Commission if they do not receive a reply to the First Appeal. The Commission can take three to six months just to list the case.”
Reddy said applicants living in Khammam, Wanaparthy, or elsewhere must travel to Hyderabad in person for a hearing, even though the hearing itself often lasts only a few minutes. “Citizens suffer because they do not receive information and because they must pay to travel for the appeal, while government officials simply claim travel allowances,” he told HyderabadMail. He estimated each appeal costs an applicant about Rs 12,000.
Petition seeks functional RTI portal
The petition argues that the Commission directly violates a 2023 Supreme Court ruling (Kishan Chand Jain v. Union of India, decided October 9, 2023). The Supreme Court said that adjudicatory bodies must use technology like video-conferencing and ordered all State Information Commissions to offer a hybrid hearing option by December 31, 2023. More than two-and-a-half years after the deadline, the Telangana Commission still has not complied, according to the petition.
Reddy said the Commission started trying a Google Meet option only after he filed his PIL. He called it a token gesture, not a real rollout. “They started it after we filed the PIL, just as a sample to show the court,” he said.
Reddy says he personally filed 32 RTI applications and 25 First Appeals through the Telangana portal and received substantive responses to only five. He says thousands across the state have had the same experience. He appealed to the Court only after sending unanswered requests to the Chief Secretary, the ITE&C Department, and the Information Commission between August 2025 and March 2026 for nearly seven months. The court will hear the case next on August 3, 2026.
A law student has taken the Telangana government to the High Court over what he describes as the near-total collapse of the state’s online Right to Information (RTI) system. He presented official data showing that only 17 of more than 3,300 registered public authorities are actually using the portal to respond to citizens.
Speaking to Hyderabad Mail, Reddy said he has been filing RTI applications since finishing his intermediate education in 2015–16. He turned to the courts after years of frustration. The RTI process offered no way to track applications and provided a digital portal that barely worked.
The petitioner received data through his own RTI application to the Information Technology, Electronics and Communications (ITE&C) Department. The state added 3,323 public authorities to the RTI portal since its launch in December 2022. Only 17 actually use it to respond to applicants. This means 3,306 authorities, or 99.48 percent, do not comply.
The same data shows that applicants filed 17,865 RTI applications through the portal between December 2023 and 2025, but officials resolved only 377, a rate of just 2.1 percent. The situation is even worse for appeals: applicants filed 2,502 First Appeals, but officials did not resolve a single one.
Reddy said, “Out of 17,000 RTI applications, officials gave replies to only 325. The rest remained pending, and the backlog has grown. Now, applicants have filed 25,000 RTI applications. Yet officials have given very few replies, fewer than a thousand people received a response in five months.”
Only 17 authorities using portal
Major public authorities, such as the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC), the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA), and Osmania University, reportedly do not use the portal. The Telangana Information Commission’s 2023 annual report lists 17,768 designated Public Information Officers (PIOs) and 2,228 First Appellate Authorities statewide. These numbers are much higher than the roughly 3,300 authorities currently registered on the portal.
Reddy compared Telangana’s approach with other states. The National Informatics Centre (NIC) gives RTI portal software to states for free. Telangana, however, paid a private vendor consortium about Rs 2.07 crore for the portal’s design and hosting. More than Rs 1.51 crore has already been paid.
Reddy’s second main issue is that the Telangana Information Commission still refuses to hold hearings online. Reddy explained, “The RTI Act’s appeal process allows applicants to file a First Appeal if they do not receive a reply in 30 days and to file a Second Appeal with the State Information Commission if they do not receive a reply to the First Appeal. The Commission can take three to six months just to list the case.”
Reddy said applicants living in Khammam, Wanaparthy, or elsewhere must travel to Hyderabad in person for a hearing, even though the hearing itself often lasts only a few minutes. “Citizens suffer because they do not receive information and because they must pay to travel for the appeal, while government officials simply claim travel allowances,” he told HyderabadMail. He estimated each appeal costs an applicant about Rs 12,000.
Petition seeks functional RTI portal
The petition argues that the Commission directly violates a 2023 Supreme Court ruling (Kishan Chand Jain v. Union of India, decided October 9, 2023). The Supreme Court said that adjudicatory bodies must use technology like video-conferencing and ordered all State Information Commissions to offer a hybrid hearing option by December 31, 2023. More than two-and-a-half years after the deadline, the Telangana Commission still has not complied, according to the petition.
Reddy said the Commission started trying a Google Meet option only after he filed his PIL. He called it a token gesture, not a real rollout. “They started it after we filed the PIL, just as a sample to show the court,” he said.
Reddy says he personally filed 32 RTI applications and 25 First Appeals through the Telangana portal and received substantive responses to only five. He says thousands across the state have had the same experience. He appealed to the Court only after sending unanswered requests to the Chief Secretary, the ITE&C Department, and the Information Commission between August 2025 and March 2026 for nearly seven months. The court will hear the case next on August 3, 2026.
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