How many Government Orders can a citizen actually read? Only 82,657 of the 1,99,115 issued since June 2014 were publicly available, the State told the Assembly; now a Telangana High Court plea seeks publication of 1.16 lakh unpublished Government Orders, which the petitioner says the State has kept out of the public domain despite earlier court directions.
Hyderabad: Every Government Order (GO) issued since June 2, 2014 should be placed in the public domain, other than those withheld for legally valid reasons, a writ petition before the Telangana High Court says. It also asks for department-wise figures of GOs not yet made public, which the petitioner puts at 1,16,458 [B Vinay Reddy v. The State of Telangana and Others].
Justice Surepalli Nanda is seized of the petition, filed by B. Vinay Reddy through Advocate Mahesh Mamindla. There is no next hearing date available, and the State’s reply has not been reported. All of what follows is the petitioner’s contention.
What the petitioner asks for
- Publication of all GOs issued since June 2, 2014, other than those withheld for legally valid reasons.
- Department-wise figures of unpublished GOs, deadlines for future uploads and the appointment of responsible officers.
- Free RTI information within two weeks and a decision on the complaint before the Information Commission within four weeks.
- Hybrid hearings before the Commission, at least seven days’ notice of hearing dates and upload of hearing records within three days.
The figures the plea is built on
At the centre of the petition is what the State told the Legislative Assembly in March 2025: 1,99,115 GOs were issued between June 2, 2014 and March 14, 2025, of which 82,657 were publicly available. By the petitioner’s count, that leaves 1,16,458 unpublished, about 58.5 per cent. An RTI reply dated November 18, 2025 is also cited, according to which only 3,290 of the 19,064 GOs issued between December 7, 2023 and January 26, 2025 were in the public domain.
The petition says the High Court had twice directed the State to upload unpublished GOs within eight weeks, on March 10, 2022 and again on December 23, 2025, and that these directions have not been fully carried out. A contempt case over the alleged non-compliance is pending. Justice Nanda passed the December 2025 order in a public interest litigation by a leader of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi, who later alleged non-compliance and filed the contempt petition. The State’s position on those allegations has not been reported.
“Public” and “internal”: how GOs are tagged
According to the petition, departments tag each GO on the Government Order Issue Register (GOIR) portal as “public” or “internal”, and hold some back without any reasoned order citing Section 8 or Section 9 of the Right to Information Act, 2005. The core submission is that a citizen cannot know, or rely on, a GO that never reaches the public domain.
Mr Reddy says he filed an RTI application on January 17, 2026 seeking details of the GOs and the rules on not publishing them, and then a complaint before the Telangana Information Commission on February 22. The petition alleges that the Commission took up the complaint only on July 15, heard it three times without deciding, and adjourned it on October 13 with no next date. It adds that the Commission neither provided hearing records nor allowed participation by video conference.
What the Court will have to decide
Public authorities are obliged to disclose information on their own under the Right to Information Act, 2005, and Sections 8 and 9 lay down the limited grounds for withholding it. The petition argues that holding back thousands of GOs as “internal”, with no recorded reasons, falls outside those grounds. That is for the High Court to decide once the State has been heard.
The plea goes beyond one RTI dispute, asking the Court to supervise how a State publishes the orders through which it governs. The Court has not yet examined the figures or the State’s explanation, and no view has been expressed on the merits.
Case Title: B Vinay Reddy v. The State of Telangana and Others [case number awaited]
Bench: Justice Surepalli Nanda, Telangana High Court
Reported: October 23, 2026
Appearances: Advocate Mahesh Mamindla for the petitioner