Office Memorandum No. 10/2/2008-IR: requests under the RTI Act concerning information held by other public authorities [C10-01B]

3. [...] (i) A person makes an application to a public authority for some information which concerns some another public authority. In such a case, the PIO receiving the application should transfer the application to the concerned public authority under intimation to the applicant.

(ii) [Where] only a part of [the information] is available with that public authority and a part of the information concerns some another public authority[,] the PIO should supply the information available with him and a copy of the application should be sent to that another public authority under intimation to the applicant.

(iii) [Where the rest is] scattered with more than one other public authorities [...] the PIO of the public authority receiving the application should give information relating to it and advise the applicant to make separate applications to the concerned public authorities. [...] It is beyond the scope of the Act for a public authority to create information. Collection of information, parts of which are available with different public authorities, would amount to creation of information which a public authority under the Act is not required to do. [...]

(iv) If a person makes an application to a public authority for some information which is the concern of a public authority under any State Government or the Union Territory Administration, the Central Public Information Officer (CPIO) of the public authority receiving the application should inform the applicant that the information may be had from the concerned State Government/UT Administration. Application, in such a case, need not be transferred [...]