Order chaps in court to provide explanatory note (7)
I believe the answer is:
comment
'explanatory note' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'order chaps in court' is the wordplay.
'order' becomes 'om' (order of merit).
'chaps' becomes 'men' (I've seen this before).
'in' is an insertion indicator.
'court' becomes 'ct'.
'om'+'men'='ommen'
'ommen' put inside 'ct' is 'COMMENT'.
'to provide' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for comment that I've seen before include "How suitable for Le Monde" , "Leader writer's forte" , "observation" , "Explanatory note" , "Nancy's version of how" .)