Under the provisions of RTI Act, any citizen of India may request information from a "public authority" (a body of Government or "instrumentality of State") which is required to reply expeditiously or within thirty days.

[1] The RTI Bill was passed by Parliament of India on 15 June 2005 and came into force with effect from 12 October 2005.

It is also defined in the Act that bodies or authorities established or constituted by order or notification of appropriate government including bodies "owned, controlled or substantially financed" by government, or non-Government organizations "substantially financed, directly or indirectly by funds".

[10] The Central Information Commission (CIC) held that the political parties are public authorities and are answerable to citizens under the RTI Act.

The CIC said that eight national parties - Congress, BJP, NCP, CPI(M), CPI, BSP, NPP and AITC - has been substantially funded indirectly by the Central Government and have the character of public authorities under the RTI Act as they perform public functions.

[11][12] But in August 2013 the government introduced a Right To Information (Amendment) Bill which would remove political parties from the scope of the law.

If a citizen is dissatisfied with the response provided by the State Public Information Officer (SPIO), they may file an appeal with the designated Appellate Authority.

[18]List of SICs: A citizen who desires to seek some information from a public authority is required to send, along with the application (a Postal order or DD (Demand draft) or a bankers cheque) or a court stamp payable to the Accounts Officer of the public authority as fee prescribed for seeking information.

[23] The Right to information in India has been mired with controversies ranging from their use in political battles, asking for educational degrees of political rivals, or cases of blatant refusals to provide information on high-profile projects to allegations of misuse by civil society.

[27] Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) data points to over 310 cases[28] across India where people were either attacked, physically or mentally harassed or had their property damaged because of the information they sought under RTI.

The data throws up over 50 alleged murders and two suicides that were directly linked with RTI applications filed.

Protection measures suggested include: Many civil society members have recently alleged the subversion of the right to information Act by the invocation of Intellectual Property rights argument by the government agencies from time to time.

[34] Many RTIs are rejected because the bureaucratic requirements (including the technocratic language used) of filing are too onerous and legalistic for ordinary citizens.

[38] Many activists view the Right to Information Act as a final liberation from British colonialism; they describe the RTI law as "a tool for empowering ordinary citizens and changing the culture of governance by making it transparent, less corrupt, participatory, and accountable".

[37] They also note that RTI requests provide strategy and substance for activists on a broad range of social issues, including "land and environmental rights, social security benefits, the working of financial institutions, political party financing reform, civic infrastructure, and even public-private partnerships".