TVK government revokes RTI shield for law-and-order department after 'police state' backlash

CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu government led by Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay has revoked a controversial order that exempted the Public (Law and Order) Department from the Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005, backing down within days after a storm of criticism from its own allies and the opposition. The revocation order, issued on September 27, stated that Government Order Ms. No. 57 of the Human Resources Management (R) Department, dated September 21, 2026, 'stands revoked'. The original notification had classified the Public (Law and Order) Department as an 'Intelligence and Security Organisation' under Section 24(4) of the RTI Act, placing it outside the law's reach. The significance of the exemption lay in the department's sweeping remit. It handles matters relating to communal and caste clashes, political agitations, preventive detention, inquiry reports into police firings, custodial deaths, alleged police torture and deaths of remand prisoners, besides references from the National Human Rights Commission. It also deals with representations by detainees, habeas corpus petitions, requests for withdrawal of cases registered on political grounds, and proposals for sanctioning prosecution over defamatory articles, news reports and speeches — bringing the transparency question squarely into the realm of journalism and free expression. The backlash was immediate. VCK president and MP Thol. Thirumavalavan termed the notification 'highly shocking', warning it would 'pave the way for suppressing human rights' and demanding its immediate withdrawal. A CPM MP warned the order risked turning Tamil Nadu into a 'police state', while a Congress MP said the exemption undermined democratic accountability. The government initially tried to defend the move. TVK minister CTR Nirmal Kumar said the intention was not to block all information, claiming the exemption targeted sensitive categories such as details of community clashes frequently sought through RTI requests, and said the matter could be taken up with the Chief Minister if the public was unhappy. Another TVK minister, Raj Mohan, asserted that freedom of expression would not be affected. But the criticism refused to die down, and on Sunday the government folded. The episode marks one of the young TVK administration's sharpest self-inflicted wounds: its first instinct, when it came to the police, was to hide the records — and it retreated only when cornered.