Vijay govt's U-turn amid row over RTI exemption for law and order department; DMK takes ‘shameful’ swipe

Chief minister C Joseph Vijay-led Tamil Nadu government on Sunday withdrew a controversial order that had kept the state’s Public (Law and Order) Department outside the scope of the Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005, following objections from allies of the ruling TVK, along with criticism from the opposition DMK.

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.

What was the order?

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The withdrawn order had used Section 24(4) of the transparency law to classify the department as an "Intelligence and Security Organisation". This would have kept it outside the RTI framework and restricted public access to the information it holds.

As a result, details related to communal incidents, political protests, deaths in police custody and other law and order issues would no longer have been available to the public through RTI applications.

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.

VCK, Congress pushed back against order

Congress and VCK leaders, who are part of the TVK-led "Secular Social Justice Victory Alliance" (SSJVA) in the state, had called for the order to be withdrawn.

Congress MP Karti Chidambaram criticised the decision, saying it set a "bad precedent". He argued that the scope of the RTI Act should be widened instead of being restricted.

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. The Sivaganga Lok Sabha MP later welcomed the government's decision to withdraw the order.

VCK chief Thol Thirumavalavan had described the gazette notification as "highly shocking". He warned that it would "pave the way for suppressing human rights" and called for its immediate withdrawal.

DMK targets TVK over government order

DMK MP Kanimozhi slammed the Vijay-led government and described the order as an “attempt to cover up its own failures”.

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. This is shameful. Is this the change they promised?”