Section 5 of RTI Act : Section 5: Designation Of Public Information Officers

Explanation using Example

Imagine a citizen named Priya wants to know the status of a road construction project in her locality. The project is being handled by the local municipal corporation, which is a public authority. According to Section 5 of The Right to Information Act, 2005:

• Scenario 1 (Sub-section 1): Within 100 days of the enactment of the RTI Act, the municipal corporation had designated several officers as State Public Information Officers (SPIOs) in various departments. Priya can submit her request for information regarding the road construction project to one of these officers.
• Scenario 2 (Sub-section 2): Priya lives in a remote subdivision of the district. The municipal corporation has also appointed an Assistant Public Information Officer (APIO) at the sub-district level. Priya can approach the APIO with her request, who will then forward it to the appropriate SPIO. The time taken by the APIO to forward the request will add five more days to the response time.
• Scenario 3 (Sub-section 3): The SPIO is responsible for handling Priya's request and providing her with the requested information, offering her reasonable assistance during the process.
• Scenario 4 (Sub-section 4): If the SPIO needs additional information from the engineering department to answer Priya's query, he can seek the assistance of an officer from that department.
• Scenario 5 (Sub-section 5): The officer from the engineering department is obliged to assist the SPIO and for the duration of this assistance, he is also considered an SPIO under the Act.