A citizen seeks information from a public authority which contains COMMERCIALLY SENSITIVE information of a THIRD PARTY. Under the Right to Information Act, 2005, before disclosing such information the Public Information Officer must, as a rule:

Under Section 11 of the RTI Act, where a request relates to a THIRD-PARTY information, the Public Information Officer must give the third party a written NOTICE, within five days of receipt, giving a reasonable opportunity to make a representation before disclosure, and must extend the time for providing the information by a further period (five days in the prescribed manner) to consider that representation. Disclosure is then weighed against the exemptions of Section 8(1)(d)/(j) (commercial confidence/alr privacy). This third-party-representation procedure protects legitimate commercial confidentiality while preserving accountability. The extended 5-day third-party window is a distinct RTI procedural point.