State innovations — the Jaankari system, Bihar — Right to Information (RTI) Notes

State innovations — the Jaankari system, Bihar

The RTI Act assumes a citizen who can write an application, find the right officer and pay a fee at a counter. For a poor or illiterate villager, each of those steps is a wall. Bihar’s answer was disarmingly simple: let them file by telephone. Pick up the phone, dictate the request, and the State does the paperwork.

The call-centre model of access

A. What the Jaankari system is

Launched in Bihar in 2007, the Jaankari (“information”) system is a call-centre-based facilitation service for filing RTI applications by telephone. A citizen dials the help-line (the widely publicised number 155311); a call-centre operator records the request, the citizen pays the fee through the telephone bill or at a counter, the application is drafted and forwarded to the correct Public Information Officer, and a copy is posted back to the citizen. The first appeal can likewise be filed by phone.

B. Why it is a model best practice

The Jaankari system meets every test of a best practice: it removes the literacy and mobility barrier, it is rule-bound and replicable, and it advances access rather than officer discretion. It won national recognition and became the template other States studied for telephone-based RTI facilitation. It complements — never replaces — the citizen’s statutory route under s. 6.

Section 6(1), Right to Information Act, 2005: “A person, who desires to obtain any information under this Act, shall make a request in writing or through electronic means… to the Central Public Information Officer or State Public Information Officer…”

In Simple Terms: The Act needs the request in writing — so Jaankari does the writing for the citizen. The villager speaks; the call-centre reduces it to the written application the statute requires. The barrier falls without bending the law.

🔑 KEY POINT — Jaankari facilitates, it does not replace, s. 6

🔑 The Jaankari system does not create a new right or a new authority. It is a facilitation layer over s. 6: the citizen dictates, the State drafts and files the written application. That is precisely why it is a best practice — it widens access to the existing right without amending the Act.

🧩 WORKED EXAMPLE — the illiterate applicant

Facts. An illiterate labourer in rural Bihar wants to know why his old-age pension has stopped, but cannot write an application or travel to the block office.

Rule. Section 6 requires a written request, but does not require the citizen to write it; a facilitation system may reduce his oral request to writing.

Apply. He telephones the Jaankari help-line, states his complaint, and pays the nominal fee through his phone bill. The operator drafts the RTI application to the correct PIO of the social-welfare department and mails him the acknowledgement; if refused, he files the first appeal by the same call. The written-request requirement of s. 6 is satisfied by the operator’s draft.

Conclusion. The labourer exercises a right he could never have exercised on paper — the essence of a best practice.

flowchart TD
    A["JAANKARI SYSTEM, Bihar (2007)<br/>file RTI by telephone (155311)"]
    A --> B["Citizen DIALS the help-line<br/>and dictates the request"]
    B --> C["Operator DRAFTS the written<br/>application; fee via phone bill"]
    C --> D["Forwarded to the correct PIO;<br/>copy posted back to the citizen"]
    D --> E["FIRST APPEAL also fileable by phone"]
    A --> F["Effect — removes literacy and<br/>mobility barriers; facilitates s. 6,<br/>does not replace it"]
    classDef box fill:#e8f0fe,stroke:#333,color:#111;
    class A,B,C,D,E,F box;

Case Laws

State of U.P. v. Raj Narain (1975) — the right to know belongs to every citizen; a facilitation system like Jaankari makes that universality real for those who cannot use the written route unaided.
CBSE v. Aditya Bandopadhyay (2011) — the Act is meant to be worked simply and cheaply for the ordinary citizen; telephone facilitation embodies that spirit.

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