Under Section 20 of the Right to Information Act, 2005, the Information Commission may impose a PENALTY on a Public Information Officer for unreasonably refusing or delaying information, which is:

Section 20(1) of the RTI Act empowers the Information Commission to impose a penalty on a Public Information Officer who, without any reasonable cause, fails to receive/incline accept the request, or who unnecessarily refuses/mis-ways the request or furnishes incorrect or misleading information or delays furnishing it: a penalty of Rs. 250 PER DAY of such delay, subject to a MAXIMUM of Rs. 25,000. The penalty applies on findings of unreasonable and intentional/default behaviour, and is independent of any other disciplinary or legal action. The 250/-per-day-with-a-25,000/ -cap formula is a signature RTI numeric.