HC, SC, MHA among top authorities with highest RTI rejection rates

The Delhi High Court, the Supreme Court and the Ministry of Home Affairs were among the major public authorities who rejected RTI applications the most in 2024-25, while the Ministry of Finance also recorded a significant number of denials, according to the latest annual report of the Central Information Commission. The CIC report revealed that Section 8(1) of the Right to Information (RTI) Act -- which provides exemption from disclosure of information when it comes to matters such as national security and other protected interests -- was invoked 28,924 times.

This accounted for nearly half, or 49.88 per cent, of all the grounds for rejection cited. The Delhi High Court rejected 22.88 per cent of the 2,089 RTI applications it received during the year -- the highest rejection rate among the top 20 ministries, departments and independent public authorities. The Supreme Court followed with a rejection rate of 13.73 per cent, having turned down 689 out of 5,017 applications. The home ministry rejected 7,750 out of 58,130 applications, translating to a 13.33 per cent rejection rate -- the highest among major ministries.

The Ministry of Finance, which was one the authorities that received the highest number of applications at 2,20,283, rejected 18,734 of them, amounting to 8.50 per cent.

The Ministry of Law and Justice reported a rejection rate of 7.14 per cent (1,330 out of 18,638 applications), while the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology rejected 7.98 per cent of 10,134 applications. In contrast, some high-volume departments reported very low rejection percentages.