The story so far:

A controversy has broken out over the alleged participation of two private individuals, Vishnu Reddy and John Arockiasamy, at the inaugural meeting of the Tamil Nadu Cabinet held at Fort St. George, the seat of power of the State government, on June 4 under the chairmanship of Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay, who is heading the State’s first coalition government. Several parties, including the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), the principal Opposition party in the Assembly, have made the allegation and expressed their strong resentment. The State government has been maintaining a studied silence on the issue.

What happened at the Cabinet meeting?

At the first meeting on June 5, the Cabinet gave its formal nod for 436 plans of the new government under the ‘Vetri Tamizhagam Vision Document,’ encompassing many of the poll promises made by the ruling Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) in the run-up to the 2026 Assembly elections. Minister for Energy Resources and Law R. Nirmalkumar, who briefed journalists of the deliberations of the meeting, said specific targets had been set for each department. There was no trace of any indication that day about the controversy that would break out almost a month later.

Who are Mr. Reddy and Mr. Arockiasamy?

On May 22, the news was out that the Chief Minister’s office had got two advisers: Mr. Reddy and Mr. Arokiasamy - with the rank of a Cabinet Minister. According to reports in sections of the media, the former would handle public events and general matters and the latter, political affairs. Mr. Reddy is a personal friend of the Chief Minister, and Mr. Arokiasamy has been Mr. Vijay’s political strategist ahead of the 2026 Assembly election. The orders appointing them as the CM’s advisers are not in the public domain. Even their names are not in the Contact Directory page of the Chief Minister’s Office on the website of the Tamil Nadu government.

What is the main objection of the DMK and other Opposition parties?

In a complaint addressed to the Director-General of Police (DGP) on June 30, the DMK sought the registration of an FIR and an investigation into the alleged commission of cognisable offences under Section 5 (wrongful communication, etc., of information) of the Official Secrets Act, 1923, the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), 2023, the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023, and other applicable laws.

On July 4, del­eg­a­tions of the DMK, the AIADMK and the BJP met Gov­ernor Rajendra Vish­wanath Arlekar and sub­mit­ted sep­ar­ate memor­anda urging him to ini­ti­ate legal action against the par­ti­cip­a­tion of “two private indi­vidu­als” in a recently held Cab­inet meeting.

Who can attend the Cabinet meetings?

As far as Tamil Nadu is concerned, the meetings of the Council of Ministers are governed by the Tamil Nadu Government Business Rules, 1978, which are amended as and when necessary. The State does not have the tradition of appointing Ministers of State or Deputy Ministers. So, all those who made it to the Council are Cabinet Ministers.

Rule 19 deals with the specific issue of the meetings of the Cabinet. As former Advocate-General P.S. Raman pointed out in a conversation with this journalist on the morning of July 10, “there is no bar” on outsiders attending the meetings, if one is to go by the rulebook. But, Ministers, at the time of swearing in, take the oath of secrecy and allegiance to the Constitution. Hence, they are bound by the oath.

The sub-rule 4, which permits the Chief Minister to nominate any other Minister in his absence, also allows the Governor to preside over meetings of the Cabinet, provided he or she gets a “general or special invitation” to do so.

As regards civil servants, the Chief Secretary, being the Secretary to the Council of Ministers, “shall attend all the meetings of the Council and prepare a record of the decisions”. In respect of other civil servants, the Secretary in the department to which a case belongs and the Secretary in any other department concerned are permitted to attend the meetings, if directed by the Chief Minister or the Minister presiding.

Invariably, the Finance Secretary is present in the Cabinet meetings of Tamil Nadu, as almost every subject which comes up before the Cabinet has financial implications. Also, the Secretaries to the Chief Minister attend the meeting.

Mr. Raman said that “as A-G, I am entitled to be invited for the Cabinet meetings”. He recalled that when M. Karunanidhi was Chief Minister during 2006-2011, he had attended one such meeting. Former Minister Thangam Thennarasu, who was School Education Minister in the period and subsequently Industries and Finance during 2021-2026, said that in April 2010, when the State government had deliberated upon the issue of taking part in the proceedings of the Empowered Committee on Mullaperiyar, the Cabinet heard the views of the then A-G and veteran water expert, A. Mohanakrishnan. Subsequently, a former Judge of the Supreme Court, A.R. Lakshmanan, was nominated by the government to represent the State.

What was the view of India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru on the matter of attendance at?

In a file of the Prime Minister’s Secretariat in November 1948, Nehru wrote as follows: In the United Kingdom, nobody except the Cabinet Ministers can be present at Cabinet meetings. The only exceptions are the Secretary to the Cabinet and his Deputy. If a Minister desires to consult his Secretary in regard to some point under discussion in the Cabinet, the Minister concerned has to go out of the Cabinet room to do so. The Secretary cannot be called to the Cabinet room. In my opinion this is a desirable practice and I recommend it being adopted in India. I agree that on certain occasions, it might be necessary for the Cabinet to invite certain Secretaries or others to explain certain matters. On such occasions the meetings of the Cabinet could be treated as informal. In the case of all formal meetings, however,. the rule against admittance of outsiders to the meeting would strictly apply,” Nehru stated.

As for meetings of the Union Cabinet, neither the Allocation of Business Rules, 1961, nor the Transaction of Business Rules, 1961, has anything specific to talk about who can attend and who cannot attend.

What action can be done against the two advisers in question, if their participation is a fact?

The State government has to clarify first the terms of appointment of the two advisers and later, whether they had given an undertaking under the Official Secrets Act to uphold the confidentiality of matters that they became aware of. If the answer is in the affirmative for the second question, no action can be proceeded against. Mr. Raman views the presence of “outsiders” as a “matter of propriety.”

Former Minister of the AIADMK, D. Jayakumar, who handled various subjects such as Finance, Fisheries and Law in his 15-year-long stint in different Cabinets, accuses Mr. Vijay of having violated the oath of secrecy by allowing the two to attend the Cabinet meeting.