Light on truth: on the Tamil Nadu G.O. and RTI

Protests by political parties and transparency activists have derailed the surreptitious rollout, in Tamil Nadu, of a regressive decision to exempt the Public (Law and Order) Department from the purview of the Right to Information Act, 2005. On September 21, the State government issued a Government Order (G.O.) exercising powers under Section 24 (4) of the RTI Act to notify the department as an “intelligence and security organisation” to which the provisions of the Act shall not apply. While the G.O. surfaced in the public domain only on September 27, strikingly, the Public Department’s designated authorities under the RTI Act had instantly begun citing it to deny information to applicants as early as September 22. This betrayed a system that is shy of investing in transparency. Unsurprisingly, State Law Minister C.T.R.