RAS question
Under the RTI Act, information must be provided within how many days of a request?
Correct answer: (B) 30 days.
Under the Right to Information Act, 2005, a Public Information Officer must ordinarily provide the requested information within 30 days of receiving the request.
Explanation
Section 7(1) of the Right to Information Act, 2005 fixes the ordinary response period for an RTI request at 30 days from the date the request is received. Within that period, the Central or State Public Information Officer must either provide the information on payment of the prescribed fee or reject the request for reasons allowed under the Act. The same provision also creates a tighter deadline for urgent cases: if the information sought concerns the life or liberty of a person, it must be provided within 48 hours. Therefore, for a standard RTI request, the legally correct answer is 30 days, not any longer or shorter general period.
Why the other options are wrong
- (A) 45 days is not the ordinary RTI response period; Section 7(1) sets the general deadline at 30 days from receipt of the request.
- (C) 15 days understates the statutory period because the Act gives the Public Information Officer up to 30 days for an ordinary request.
- (D) 60 days overstates the statutory period; an ordinary RTI request must be answered within 30 days, subject to the Act's rejection grounds or fee process.
Concept
This tests the governance topic of citizen-centric accountability under the RTI Act. RAS often asks such provisions because timelines, authorities and exceptions show how transparency laws work in administration.