Tamil Nadu Government Revokes Order Exempting Law and Order Department From RTI Act

Tamil Nadu Government Revokes Order Exempting Law and Order Department From RTI Act

Following the order of exemption for the Public (Law and Order) Department under Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005 citing it is an Intelligence and Security Organisation, the Vijay-led TVK government in Tamil Nadu has retracted the order following it receiving flak from the opposition.

Government Order Ms. No 57 of Human Resources Management (R) department dated 21st September,2026, creating exemption of the Public (Law and Order) Department under sub section (4) of section 24 of the RTI Act,2005, is hereby removed,” the government said.

Public law order covers various issues like inquiry report on opening of police fire, inquiry report on custody death, police torture and so on. As per the aforesaid order, the general public would not have been aware of such particulars.

TVK Minister CTR Nirmal Kumar had stated that if the ppublic does not like it it could be changed.

“Information related to any incident that is of community clash related shall not be given under RTI because a large number of information seekers are asking for RTI on community clash incident. Only 4 or 5 section from Law and order are exempted from RTI so there are 20 sections and this is the main reason,” CTR Nirmal Kumar had said.

“But if there is any public discomfort then we will send the matter to the Chief Minister for action,” he had said.

The TVK was subjected to harsh accusations as it proclaimed the abovementioned order, that is, under Section 24 (4) of RTI Act, 2005, in the Government Gazette.

“This is an open attempt to turn Tamilnadu into a police state. The Government should immediately withdraw the order,” CPM MP Venkatesan had said earlier.

TVK defends previous order, which is not a threat to free expression.

“Freedom of expression will not be hampered. As a Minister of DIPR, I also will give you all the required information (media). We need to understand the Lakshman Rekha of freedom of expression. We should not deliberately misinterpret the data for our party’s benefit,” TVK Minister Raj Mohan stated.

Congress MP Karti Chidambaram, however, stated that the RTI was one of the landmark decisions of the UPA government to deepen “democratic accountability”.

This precedent can prove dangerous, as the TVK government’s decision to exempt the Public (Law and Order) Department from the RTI Act, a Congress MP had previously remarked, was a “momentous step” a Congress-led UPA government had taken, intended to bring greater accountability to the governance of the country.

“The Law and Order Department is responsible for important issues like processing inquiry reports on police firing, custodial deaths, torture and deaths of remand prisoners, security related detention cases, reports of communal and caste clash, applications for withdrawal of politically sensitive cases and issues relating to sanction of prosecution for defamatory articles, news stories, and speeches. Now this vital information is being kept away from the people. Rollback of RTI does not reflect transparent governance. RTI should be extended and not limited.”