The direction was issued by Justice Surepalli Nanda while hearing a writ petition filed by Errolla Srinivas, former chairman of the Telangana State SC/ST Commission.
Hyderabad:The Telangana High Court on Tuesday directed the government to upload all GOS, circulars, rules and notifications on its official websites and to strictly adhere to its own policy framed in this regard under GO Ms. No.4 dated April 10, 2017. The direction was issued by Justice Surepalli Nanda while hearing a writ petition filed by Errolla Srinivas, former chairman of the Telangana State SC/ST Commission.
The petitioner sought a direction to the Chief Secretary and the commissioner of information to ensure publication of all GOs, notifications, rules and circulars issued by various departments in the public domain through official web portals. The petitioner contended that despite clear statutory and administrative mandates, a large number of GOS continued to remain unavailable to the public, thereby undermining transparency and accountability in governance.R. Chandrashekar Reddy, counsel for the petitioner, placed before the court information obtained under the Right to Information Act, revealing that revealed that between December 7, 2023, and January 26, 2025, 19,064 GOs had been issued but only 3,290 were found to be available in the public domain, leaving 15,774 inaccessible to citizens.
It was brought to the notice of the court that only 17 GOs were placed in the public domain by the finance department, out of the 3,720 it issued in the period. He also placed department-wise lists of the GOs issued and those placed in the public domain.
The petitioner made the reference to a direction by a division bench of the Telangana High Court, by order dated March 20, 2022, to the government to upload and regularly update all GOs and appoint a senior officer to ensure compliance. It was submitted that these directions had not been effectively implemented.
Justice Nanda directed the government to implement the earlier division bench directions and to strictly adhere to the guidelines contained in GO Ms.No. 4 dated April 10, 2017. The court emphasised the need for immediate and effective steps to ensure that the documents were updated on official websites for public access, in furtherance of transparency, accountability and the principles underlying a representative democracy.
The matter acquired a political dimension following a post by BRS former minister T. Harish Rao on social media platform X. Referring to the court’s directions, he described the order as a “slap” to the Congress government, alleging that it was deliberately hiding GOs and functioning without transparency.
The post triggered sharp reactions from citizens, who countered the allegation by pointing to the record of the previous BRS government. It was stated that during the BRS regime between June 2, 2014, and August 15, 2019, only 60,709 GOs were placed in the public domain out of the 1,04,171 issued during that period.
