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The Central Information Commission launched AppCoMS 2.0, an upgraded Appeal and Complaint Management System, on 17 August 2026; it was launched by Chief Information Commissioner Sh. Raj Kumar Goyal.
The portal handles Second Appeals and Complaints under the Right to Information Act, 2005, end to end - registration, scheduling of hearings, and issuance and uploading of decisions. AppCoMS was first introduced by the Commission in September 2016.
New features include user accounts for applicants, Central Public Information Officers and other stakeholders linked to email and mobile number, access to case timelines and documents, and the use of Digital Signature Certificates for signing and issuing notices and orders.
An applicant files an RTI request with the Central Public Information Officer (CPIO) of a public authority. Under Section 7(1), the CPIO must supply the information or reject the request within 30 days. If no decision arrives in time, or the applicant is aggrieved by the decision, Section 19(1) allows a FIRST appeal within 30 days to an officer senior in rank to the CPIO within the same public authority - the First Appellate Authority. If that too fails, Section 19(3) allows a SECOND appeal, within 90 days, to the Central Information Commission (or the relevant State Information Commission). A complaint under Section 18 is a separate route, used for instance where no CPIO has been designated or a request was refused at the counter. AppCoMS 2.0 is the digital plumbing for exactly the second-appeal and complaint stage - the point at which the case leaves the public authority and reaches the Commission.
Simple Analogy: The CPIO is the counter clerk, the First Appellate Authority is the branch manager, and the Central Information Commission is the appellate tribunal - AppCoMS is the tribunal's e-filing and case-management registry.
Received assent on 15 June 2005 and came fully into force on 12 October 2005, replacing the Freedom of Information Act, 2002. It gives citizens a statutory right to information held by public authorities and creates the machinery of CPIOs, First Appellate Authorities and Information Commissions to enforce it.
Section 7(1) sets the 30-day limit for the CPIO to decide a request. Section 19(1) provides a first appeal within 30 days to a senior officer of the same public authority; Section 19(3) provides a second appeal to the Central or State Information Commission within 90 days - the appeals AppCoMS 2.0 processes.
Constitutes the Central Information Commission, which consists of the Chief Information Commissioner and not more than ten Information Commissioners. They are appointed by the President on the recommendation of a committee comprising the Prime Minister as Chairperson, the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, and a Union Cabinet Minister nominated by the Prime Minister. Section 12(5) requires persons of eminence in public life with wide knowledge and experience in law, science and technology, social service, management, journalism, mass media or administration and governance; Section 12(6) bars them from being MPs or MLAs, holding any office of profit, being connected with a political party, carrying on a business or pursuing a profession.
Section 13 governs the terms of service of the Chief Information Commissioner and Information Commissioners. Before 2019 the tenure was fixed by the Act at five years, and salaries were pegged to those of the Chief Election Commissioner and Election Commissioners. The RTI (Amendment) Act, 2019 amended Sections 13, 16 and 27 to empower the Central Government to prescribe tenure, salaries and other terms by rules. The Right to Information Rules, 2019, notified on 24 October 2019, set the tenure at three years and fixed the Chief Information Commissioner's salary at Rs 2.5 lakh and an Information Commissioner's at Rs 2.25 lakh.
The penalty provision: the Information Commission may impose a penalty on a CPIO of Rs 250 per day of delay, subject to a maximum of Rs 25,000, for refusing an application, not furnishing information within the time specified, or acting malafide.
Section 8(1)(j) is the personal-information exemption. Originally it allowed personal information to be withheld only where it had no relationship to any public activity or interest, or would cause unwarranted invasion of privacy - and even then, disclosure could be ordered in the larger public interest. Section 44(3) of the DPDP Act, 2023 replaced that text with the narrower formulation exempting 'information which relates to personal information', dropping the larger-public-interest proviso from the clause itself. Transparency activists and several MPs have sought its repeal; the government's position is that the public-interest balance survives elsewhere in Section 8. This is the single most contested change to the RTI Act in recent years.
A statutory - not constitutional - body created under Section 12 of the RTI Act, 2005 to hear second appeals and complaints against Central public authorities. Composition: Chief Information Commissioner plus up to ten Information Commissioners, appointed by the President on the recommendation of a committee headed by the Prime Minister, with the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha and a Union Cabinet Minister nominated by the Prime Minister as members
The parallel bodies constituted under Section 15 of the RTI Act for State public authorities, consisting of a State Chief Information Commissioner and up to ten State Information Commissioners; appointed by the Governor on the recommendation of a committee headed by the Chief Minister
The officer designated by every Central public authority to receive and decide RTI requests within 30 days; the officer against whose decision the first and second appeals lie, and on whom Section 20 penalties are imposed. AppCoMS 2.0 gives CPIOs their own user accounts to submit case documents
The Freedom of Information Act, 2002 is enacted but never effectively operationalised.
The Right to Information Act, 2005 receives assent, repealing the 2002 Act.
The RTI Act comes fully into force; the Central Information Commission is constituted under Section 12.
The CIC introduces AppCoMS, its online Appeal and Complaint Management System.
The RTI (Amendment) Act, 2019 amends Sections 13, 16 and 27, transferring the power to fix tenure and salaries of Information Commissioners to the Central Government.
The Right to Information Rules, 2019 are notified, setting a three-year tenure and revised salaries.
Section 44(3) of the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 amends Section 8(1)(j), narrowing disclosure of personal information.
Raj Kumar Goyal is sworn in as Chief Information Commissioner.
AppCoMS 2.0 is launched, adding stakeholder user accounts and Digital Signature Certificates for the Commission's notices and orders.
The Central Information Commission is a statutory body created by the RTI Act, unlike the Election Commission or the Comptroller and Auditor General, which are constitutional. That distinction is the reason Parliament could alter the Commissioners' tenure and salary by an ordinary amendment in 2019 - a change that would have required a constitutional amendment for a constitutional body.
The right to information is not separately listed in Part III but has been read into the freedom of speech and expression under Article 19(1)(a) by the Supreme Court. The RTI Act gives that judicially recognised right a statutory machinery.
The DPDP Act, 2023 amendment to Section 8(1)(j) is the live constitutional tension: the right to privacy, recognised as a fundamental right in K.S. Puttaswamy (2017), against the right to information read into Article 19(1)(a). Any question on RTI dilution is really a question about balancing these two.
AppCoMS 2.0 belongs with the Digital India stack of case-management and grievance systems - CPGRAMS for public grievances, e-Courts for judicial proceedings - all of which layer digital signatures, user accounts and online status tracking onto a pre-existing statutory process.
GS Paper 2 > Polity and Governance > Transparency, Accountability and Statutory Bodies
General Awareness > Indian Polity > RTI Act
General Awareness > Static and Current Affairs
General Awareness > Indian Polity
The RTI Act and the Central Information Commission are perennial polity topics, asked in UPSC Prelims and in almost every SSC and Railway cycle.
Appeal and Complaint Management System - the Central Information Commission's online portal for filing and processing second appeals and complaints under the RTI Act, introduced in September 2016 and upgraded to version 2.0 on 17 August 2026.
An appeal under Section 19(3) of the RTI Act to the Central or State Information Commission, filed within 90 days of the First Appellate Authority's decision or of the date on which it was due.
Central Public Information Officer - the officer designated by a Central public authority to receive and decide RTI applications within 30 days.
An electronic credential used to sign documents so that their origin and integrity can be verified; AppCoMS 2.0 enables the Commission to issue notices and orders under DSC.