Tamil Nadu: Government Rolls Back Order After Public Backlash | WION

KUALA LUMPUR, 28 SEPTEMBER 2026 —

The Tamil Nadu government withdrew, on Sunday, a notification that had classified its Public (Law and Order) Department as an “Intelligence and Security Organisation” and exempted it from the Right to Information Act.

The move matters because the exemption would have curtailed routine RTI access to a wide range of records held by the department, including information on communal and caste clashes, political agitations, police action and custody, deaths of prisoners, police firing, inquiries into law‑and‑order incidents and requests for withdrawal of cases arising from political or communal tensions. The decision was seen as a potential threat to public transparency and accountability in policing and law‑and‑order administration.

The original notification was issued by the Human Resources Management Department as Government Order Ms No. 57 on 21 September. It invoked Section 24(4) of the RTI Act, which allows a state government to declare an organisation it has established as an intelligence or security organisation, thereby taking it outside the normal scope of the Act. The notification classified the Public (Law and Order) Department as such an organisation.

The exemption was not absolute; Section 24 preserves access to information relating to allegations of corruption and human‑rights violations, subject to the procedure prescribed under the Act.

The backlash was swift. Congress MP Karti P Chidambaram said the decision “does not set a good precedent” and warned that the exemption would restrict public access to records involving police firing, custodial deaths, communal clashes and politically sensitive matters. BJP leader Tamilisai Soundararajan also criticised the move. Chidambaram later welcomed the withdrawal, describing his comments as “friendly advice” to the Tamil Nadu government.

Following the criticism, the Human Resources Management (R) Department issued a fresh order revoking the 21 September notification. The new order stated that the earlier exemption of the Public (Law and Order) Department under Section 24(4) of the RTI Act “stands revoked”. With the withdrawal, the department is no longer covered by the newly introduced exemption and will continue to remain within the regular RTI framework, subject to the other exemptions available under the Act.

The government has not publicly provided a detailed explanation for why the exemption was initially introduced or why it was subsequently withdrawn. The department handles sensitive law‑and‑order and policing‑related matters, which appears to be the basis on which the exemption was framed, but the government has not cited a particular security ground for the move.

The decision to rescind the exemption restores the department’s compliance with the RTI Act, ensuring that citizens retain access to information on police actions, custodial deaths, and other law‑and‑order matters, while still allowing the department to exercise the limited exemptions prescribed by law.