{"id":2273,"date":"2026-09-28T08:31:28","date_gmt":"2026-09-28T08:31:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsraise.com\/in\/2026\/09\/28\/tamil-nadu-revokes-rti-exemption-order\/"},"modified":"2026-09-28T08:31:28","modified_gmt":"2026-09-28T08:31:28","slug":"tamil-nadu-revokes-rti-exemption-order","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsraise.com\/in\/2026\/09\/28\/tamil-nadu-revokes-rti-exemption-order\/","title":{"rendered":"Tamil Nadu revokes order shielding law\u2011and\u2011order department from RTI"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<!-- Quick Adsense WordPress Plugin: http:\/\/quickadsense.com\/ -->\n<div class=\"9fece8afa224fd09e54b043d0febfb58\" data-index=\"1\" style=\"float: none; margin:10px 0 10px 0; text-align:center;\">\n<script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- NR ATF -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-8898941184964366\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"4839033563\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script>\n<\/div>\n<p>On Sunday, September 27, 2026, the Tamil Nadu government announced the withdrawal of a Government Order that had sought to place the Public (Law and Order) Department outside the scope of the Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005. The decision came after a wave of criticism from opposition parties, civil\u2011society groups and activists, who argued that the move undermined transparency in a department dealing with sensitive security matters.<\/p>\n<h2>Background of the order<\/h2>\n<p>The order in question was issued on September 21, 2026 by the Human Resources Management Department and was formally published in the Government Gazette. Citing Section 24(4) of the RTI Act, the order classified the Public (Law and Order) Department as an &#8220;Intelligence and Security Organisation&#8221; and therefore exempted it from the Act\u2019s disclosure requirements.<\/p>\n<p>According to the text of the order, the exemption would have covered a wide array of subjects, including communal and caste clashes, appointments of Commissions of Inquiry on law\u2011and\u2011order matters, and follow\u2011up actions on their recommendations. It also listed matters related to COFEPOSA and NSA detentions, representations by detainees, habeas corpus petitions filed in the High Court and Supreme Court, and the conduct of monthly and special law\u2011and\u2011order review meetings as directed by the Chief Secretary.<\/p>\n<p>Further, the order sought to keep out of public scrutiny any inquiry reports concerning police firing, deaths in police custody, alleged police torture, and deaths of remand prisoners. It also covered references to the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) on issues handled by the law\u2011and\u2011order wing, monthly reports on law\u2011and\u2011order and communal incidents submitted to the Government of India, and replies to questions raised in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha on related matters. Additional exclusions involved agitations by students, agricultural labourers and political parties, requests for withdrawal of cases registered on political or communal grounds, and matters pertaining to the sanction of prosecution for defamatory articles, news items and speeches.<\/p>\n<h2>Political and civil\u2011society reaction<\/h2>\n<p>The exemption order triggered immediate and widespread condemnation. AMMK founder T.T.V. Dhinakaran publicly opposed the order on September 27, accusing the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam\u2011led government of abandoning its earlier pledge of transparency. Dhinakaran demanded an explanation from Chief Minister C.\u202fJoseph Vijay and called for the revocation of the exemption.<\/p>\n<p>Environmental activist G.\u202fSundarrajan of Poovulagin Nanbargal described the timing of the order as \u201cdeeply concerning.\u201d He linked the move to a prior controversy surrounding a law\u2011and\u2011order meeting chaired by Chief Secretary M.\u202fSai Kumar, where the meeting\u2019s minutes had become public and attracted strong opposition from Left parties. Following that episode, the state had withdrawn a contentious circular on collegiate education that had been issued on the basis of the meeting\u2019s directions.<\/p>\n<p>Jayaram Venkatesan, convener of the Arappor Iyakkam movement, condemned the order in equally strong terms, insisting that \u201cthe entire Law and Order section of the Public Department could not be kept outside the purview of the RTI Act.\u201d His statement underscored a broader civil\u2011society consensus that the exemption threatened accountability in matters that directly affect public safety and civil liberties.<\/p>\n<h2>Government response and withdrawal<\/h2>\n<p>Minister for Energy Resources and Law C.T.R. Nirmal Kumar initially defended the order in a press briefing in Madurai earlier on the same day. He argued that only certain provisions\u2014specifically those dealing with information on communal clashes\u2014should remain within the ambit of the RTI Act because of the sensitivity of the data involved.<\/p>\n<p>Later that day, however, the minister announced on the social media platform X that the Government Order had been withdrawn. In his post, Nirmal Kumar confirmed that the decision to exempt the department had been reversed, though he did not provide a detailed rationale for the change beyond acknowledging the \u201cstrong criticism from various civil society organisations.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The withdrawal effectively restores the Public (Law and Order) Department to the full ambit of the RTI Act, meaning that future requests for information on the subjects listed in the September 21 order will once again be subject to the standard disclosure procedures prescribed by the Act.<\/p>\n<p>Legal scholars note that Section 24(4) of the RTI Act allows a central or state government to declare a particular body an intelligence or security organization, thereby exempting it from the Act. However, such declarations have historically been scrutinized for over\u2011broad application, especially when they encompass departments that perform routine administrative functions alongside security duties.<\/p>\n<p>The episode highlights the delicate balance that state governments must strike between safeguarding sensitive security information and upholding the constitutional right to information. It also underscores the role of political opposition and activist groups in monitoring governmental use of exemptions that could potentially curtail public oversight.<\/p>\n<p>As of the latest reports, the Tamil Nadu government has not indicated any intention to issue a revised order or to re\u2011examine other possible exemptions. Observers will be watching to see whether the withdrawal marks a lasting shift toward greater transparency or whether similar attempts may arise in the future under different guises.<\/p>\n\n<div style=\"font-size: 0px; height: 0px; line-height: 0px; margin: 0; padding: 0; clear: both;\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After intense criticism from parties and activists, Tamil Nadu withdrew a September 21 order that had exempted the Public Law and Order Department from the Right to Information Act.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2274,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[299],"tags":[2463,2462,2461,562,2464],"class_list":["post-2273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-government-order","tag-law-and-order","tag-rti-act","tag-tamil-nadu","tag-transparency","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsraise.com\/in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsraise.com\/in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsraise.com\/in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsraise.com\/in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsraise.com\/in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2273"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsraise.com\/in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2273\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsraise.com\/in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsraise.com\/in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsraise.com\/in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsraise.com\/in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}