How to File RTI with BSF, CRPF or CISF — Paramilitary Personnel Service Matters

The Border Security Force (BSF), Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), and Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) are three of India's largest Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) under the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA). Collectively they employ hundreds of thousands of uniformed personnel — constables, non-commissioned officers, and gazetted officers — across India's borders, internal security deployments, and critical infrastructure protection duties.

Personnel of these forces regularly face service grievances: their name may appear at a lower position in the seniority list than they believe they are entitled to; a promotion board may have assessed them using criteria they were never told; a posting order may have been issued without following the stated transfer policy; a departmental enquiry may have dragged on for years without resolution. In all these situations, the Right to Information Act, 2005, is a powerful tool — but it comes with an important caveat unique to these three forces: they are listed in the Second Schedule to the RTI Act, which creates a partial exemption that every applicant must understand before filing.

The Section 24 Exemption — What It Means and What It Does Not Cover

All three forces — BSF, CRPF, and CISF — appear in the Second Schedule to the RTI Act, 2005. Under Section 24(1), intelligence and security organisations listed in the Second Schedule are exempt from the provisions of the RTI Act in respect of information relating to their intelligence and security functions. In plain language: you cannot use RTI to demand information about operational deployments, intelligence sources, methods of surveillance, or security measures used in active operations.

However, Section 24(2) creates a critical carve-out that every paramilitary personnel member must know: the Section 24(1) exemption does not apply to information pertaining to allegations of corruption and human rights violations. This means that even for Second Schedule organisations, information relating to corruption or human rights abuses must be disclosed.

More importantly for service matters, the Section 24(1) exemption only covers intelligence and security operations information — it does not operate as a blanket bar on all information held by the force. The CIC and High Courts have consistently held that:

• Seniority lists are administrative records, not intelligence or security operations information
• DPC minutes (at least the criteria and benchmark applied — not names of individual assessors' opinions) are service administration records
• Promotion board criteria and norms are policy documents, not operational intelligence
• Transfer and posting criteria are administrative rules, not security measures
• Departmental enquiry proceedings and findings are quasi-judicial service records, not intelligence data
• Your own service record — including your ACR/APAR grades, personal file entries, and service book — is personal information about yourself, not a security document

Practical rule: If the information you want would reveal where troops are deployed, how the force gathers intelligence, or what security measures protect a specific installation, RTI will not get it. If the information relates to how your career has been administered — your position in a seniority list, why you were not promoted, why you were posted to a particular station, the current state of an enquiry against you — RTI is available to you, and a blanket Section 24(1) refusal is legally challengeable.

Identifying the Correct Public Authority — File With Your Force's Headquarters

BSF, CRPF, and CISF are three separate public authorities. Each has its own CPIO at its Headquarters in New Delhi. File your RTI with the Headquarters of your own force:

For some queries — such as posting orders issued by a Sector or Zone Headquarters, or DPC proceedings conducted by an intermediate formation — the relevant CPIO may be at a subordinate office rather than at the national Headquarters. In that case, file at the formation that holds the record. If in doubt, file at the national Headquarters; the CPIO is obliged under Section 6(3) to transfer the application to the correct public authority within five days.

What Service Information Can You Ask For

1. Seniority Lists

Your inter-se seniority position within your rank cadre is a matter of official record. Seniority determines the order in which names are considered for promotion in DPC proceedings. Ask for:

• Your serial number in the current seniority list for your rank
• The total number of personnel on the seniority list for your rank cadre
• A copy of the relevant extract of the seniority list (positions above and below your entry)
• The date on which the current seniority list was last published or revised
• The basis on which any person senior to you in date-of-joining was placed above you in the seniority list, if applicable

2. DPC Composition and Minutes

When a Departmental Promotion Committee (DPC) considers your promotion and your name is not included in the select panel, you have a right to know the procedural facts. The DPC minutes as a whole may be withheld to protect the deliberative process, but the following components are routinely disclosable:

• The composition of the DPC (names and designations of members)
• The ACR/APAR benchmark grade prescribed for the zone of consideration
• The number of vacancies for which the DPC was convened
• Whether your ACR/APAR record met the prescribed benchmark
• Whether you were placed in the zone of consideration at all

3. Promotion Board Criteria and ACR/APAR Norms

The criteria for promotion — minimum years of service, minimum ACR benchmark, fitness criteria, departmental examination requirements — are policy documents. Ask for:

• The written promotion policy applicable to your rank-to-rank promotion
• The DPC instructions issued by the force Headquarters for the relevant year
• The minimum ACR/APAR benchmark grade required for your promotion zone
• Whether any other criterion (physical fitness, departmental exam) was applied and its passing threshold

4. Posting Order Criteria and Transfer Policy

Transfer and posting orders must follow stated policy. Ask for:

• The transfer/posting policy applicable to your rank and cadre for the station from which you were transferred
• The tenure period prescribed for your rank at that station, and how long you served
• Whether your transfer was on administrative grounds, completion of tenure, on request, or for any other reason — and the specific reason in your case
• Whether the transfer policy was uniformly applied to other personnel of the same rank and cadre at that station at the same time

5. Departmental Enquiry Status and Findings

If a departmental enquiry has been initiated against you, you are entitled to know its current procedural status and, once concluded, the Enquiry Officer's findings. Ask for:

• Whether the enquiry is pending, concluded, or stayed
• The name and designation of the Enquiry Officer
• The dates of hearings conducted and the current stage
• A copy of the Enquiry Officer's report and findings (once the enquiry is concluded)
• Whether your representation or written defence was considered in the enquiry
• The disciplinary authority's decision, if any order has been passed on the basis of the enquiry

6. Service Record Discrepancies

Service book errors — incorrect date of birth, wrong date of joining, missing entries — affect pension calculation, retirement date, and promotion eligibility. Through RTI you can ask for:

• A copy of the relevant entries in your service book (date of birth, date of joining, pay fixation entries)
• The status of any representation or application you filed for correction of records
• The prescribed procedure under the applicable rules for correction of a specific type of entry (e.g., date of birth correction under the DoPT or MHA guidelines applicable to your force)

Where to File

1. Visit rtionline.gov.in and click Submit Request
2. Select Ministry of Home Affairs
3. In the public authority list, select your specific force: Border Security Force, Central Reserve Police Force, or Central Industrial Security Force
4. Draft your application with your full name, rank, service number, unit, and specific questions — use precise references (DPC year, posting order number, enquiry order number) wherever possible
5. Pay ₹10 online. BPL cardholders are fully exempt — select the BPL option and attach a self-attested copy of your BPL ration card
6. Submit and note your registration number for tracking

Include a brief statement in your application noting that the information sought relates to your personal service record and not to any intelligence or security operations, so that the CPIO cannot apply a reflexive Section 24(1) refusal.

Appeals

First Appeal (Section 19(1)): If the CPIO does not respond within 30 days, provides an incomplete response, denies information on a blanket Section 24(1) ground, or provides incorrect information, file a First Appeal with the First Appellate Authority (FAA) at the respective force's Headquarters. The First Appeal must be filed within 30 days of the date of decision or expiry of the 30-day response period, whichever is applicable. In your First Appeal, if a Section 24(1) exemption has been wrongly invoked, specifically argue that the information sought relates to service administration records, not intelligence or security operations.

Second Appeal (Section 19(3)): If the FAA's response is absent or unsatisfactory, file a Second Appeal with the Central Information Commission (CIC) under Section 19(3) within 90 days. BSF, CRPF, and CISF are all Central Government bodies under the Ministry of Home Affairs — second appeals always go to the CIC, not any State Information Commission.

The CIC has in several cases ruled against blanket Section 24(1) refusals by paramilitary force CPIOs for service matter queries, holding that seniority lists, DPC composition, and personal service records do not fall within the intelligence and security operations exemption. A penalty of up to ₹25,000 may be imposed on the CPIO under Section 20 of the RTI Act if information was withheld without reasonable cause.