Section 7 - Disposal of request

Right to information: officers must meet response deadlines, notify fee calculations, and inform applicants of review rights.

Right to information requests must be disposed of expeditiously by the Public Information Officer, who must provide information on payment of prescribed fees or reject requests for specified reasons. Failure to decide within the statutory period constitutes deemed refusal. Where additional fees are charged for providing information, the officer must send detailed calculations and inform applicants of review and appellate remedies; the period between intimation and payment is excluded from the response time. Officers must consider third party representations, assist sensorily disabled applicants, and ordinarily supply information in the requested form unless that would disproportionately divert resources or harm records; fee waivers apply for persons below the poverty line and when time limits are missed.