The Tamil Nadu government, led by Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay, has retracted a contentious order that excluded the state’s Public (Law and Order) Department from the Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005. This decision came on Sunday following pushback from allies within the ruling TVK and criticism from the opposition DMK. The withdrawal aims to enhance transparency and accountability within the state’s law enforcement agencies.
DMK targets TVK over government order
The reversal came soon after the government’s decision sparked a political row. Its alliance partners, including the Congress and the Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK), had strongly opposed the move. This would have kept it outside the RTI framework and restricted public access to the information it holds. He argued that the scope of the RTI Act should be widened instead of being restricted. The Sivaganga Lok Sabha MP later welcomed the government’s decision to withdraw the order. This is shameful. Is this the change they promised?”
In a post on X, she wrote, “Despite more than five hundred murders, a government incapable of restoring law and order is now attempting to restrict RTI rights so that people cannot even seek information about law and order, apparently to cover up its own failures. The government formally revoked the order issued by the Human Resources Management (R) Department on September 21.
The withdrawn order had used Section 24(4) of the transparency law to classify the department as an “Intelligence and Security Organisation”. Congress MP Karti Chidambaram criticised the decision, saying it set a “bad precedent”. He said that if the order had stayed in place, RTI access would have been denied for records related to investigations into police torture, custodial deaths, police firings, communal clashes and security-related detentions.
Earlier on Sunday, school education minister A Rajmohan had defended the original decision.
He said freedom of expression would not be affected but added that its “lakshman rekha” needed to be respected.
