2. OUTLINE
• This act exist even before independence.
• The official secrets act was first enacted in 1923 and retained after
independence.
• This consist laws applicable to government servants and citizens,
provides framework for dealing with espionage, Sedition and other
potential threats to the integrity of nation.
3. HISTORY/EVOLUTION
THE BRITISH COLONIAL ERA :
• The predecessor for the official secrets Act was Indian official Secrets Act of
1904 enacted by Lord Curzon.
• In 1904, the India official secrets act of 1889 or Act XIV was amended and let to
1904 Indian official Secrets Act.
PURPOSE:
• Suppress Large powerful newspaper in India which criticize British policy and
spread nationalism among people.
• In order to suppress those newspaper and to muzzle the local voice the 1904
indian official secrets Act was enacted.
4. THE 1923 ACT/ACT XIX
• It is the new version of official secrets Act .It is known as Act XIX which replaces
Act XIV.
• It includes Secrecy and confidentiality in governance of the country where as the
1904 was only to suppress the Newspaper which spread nationalism feelings.
AMBIT :
It deals with two broad aspects;
• Spying or Espionage. (Section 3)
• Disclosure of Other secret informations. (Section 5)
5. AMBIT OF OFFICIAL SECRETS ACT 1923
Spying or espionage, covered under Section 3.
• Secret information can be any official code, password, sketch, plan, model,
article, note, document, or information.
Disclosure of other secret information of the government, under Section 5.
• Under it, both the person communicating the information and the person
receiving the information can be punished.
Widening of the Official secrets Act leads to conflict with Right to Information Act.
6. RIGHT TO INFORMATION 2005
• This law passed by the Parliament of India on 15th june 2005 and it came into
existence on 12th October 2005.
• It mandates timely response to citizen’s request for government information. Under
RTI any citizen can ask any information that government can disclose from Parliament.
• It’s objective is to to empower the citizens and this empowerment is possible because
RTI falls under fundamental Right Article 19 of the Constitution.
• Other objectives are in order to promote transparency, accountability, check
corruption and also democracy at work for people.
7. RTI VS OSA
• In clause 6 of the OSA, “Information from Any government office is to be
considered official information” hence it can be used to override the RTI 2005
Requests.
• However section 22 of RTI Act States that “the provisions of this Act shall have
effect not withstanding anything inconsistent there with contained in the official
secrets Act 1923, and any other laws for the time being in force or in any
instrument having effect by virtue of any law other that this Act.”
• But also under sections 8 and 9 of the RTI Act, the government can refuse
information effectively if the government classifies a document as ‘secret’.
8. PUNISHMENTS/PENALITIES AND CRITICS
• Punishments under the act range from 3 years to life imprisonment. A person
prosecuted under this act can be charged with the crime even if the action was
unintentional and not intended to endanger the security of the state. Incase of
newspaper everyone including the editor, publisher, and the proprietor can be
imprisoned for an offense.
• Critics include statement of supreme Court that “OSA overrides RTI”. OSA itself does
not say what a secret document is. It is the government’s discretion to decide what
falls under the ambit of a secret document to be charged under OSA. This makes it
more Secrecy and lack of transparency making conflict with RTI.
9. COUNTRIES HAVING OSA
• Several countries, including the United Kingdom, Malaysia, Singapore, and
New Zealand, continue to use the legislation to protect state secrets.
• In 2001, Canada replaced its OSA with a Security of Information Act. The
"official secrets" come under the Espionage Act in the U.S.
• On September 3, 2018, a Myanmar court awarded seven years' jail to two
Reuters journalists for illegally possessing official documents on the military's
alleged human rights abuses against Rohingya Muslims. Malaysia has also
been accused of using the OSA to silence dissidence.
10. EFFORTS TO CHANGE PROVISIONS OF OSA
• In 1971, the Law Commission became the first official body to make an
observation regarding OSA. In its report on 'Offences Against National
Security', it observed that "it agrees with the contention" that "merely
because a circular is marked secret or confidential, it should not attract
the provisions of the Act if the publication thereof is in the interest of
the public and no question of national emergency and interest of the
State as such arises". The Law Commission, however, did not
recommend any changes to the Act.
11. EFFORTS TO CHANGE PROVISIONS OF OSA
• In 2006, the second Administrative reforms commission(ARC)
recommended that OSA be repealed and replaced with a chapter in the
National security Act containing provisions relating to official secrets.
Observing that OSA was “incongruous with the regime of transparency
in a Democratic society”. The ARC referred to the 1971 law commission
report that had called for an “umbrella act” to be passed to being
together all laws relation to national security.
12. EFFORTS TO CHANGE PROVISIONS OF OSA
• In 2015, the government had set up a committee to look into provisions
of the OSA in light of RTI Act, It submitted it’s report to the cabinet
Secretariat on June 16, 2017.
• Recommending that the OSA should be made more transparent and in
line with the RTI Act.
13. MAJOR CASES
• ISRO spy case targeting scientist S Nambi Narayanan – faced a criminal
trial under OSA and was accused of passing on rocket and cryogenic
technology to Pakistan.
• Former diplomat Madhuri Gupta – In 2018, when a Delhi high court
sentenced Madhuri Gupta, who served at the Indian high commission in
Islamabad to three years in jail for passing sensitive information to the
ISI.
14. MAJOR CASES
• One of the oldest and longest criminal trials involving OSA is the 1985
Coomar Narain spy case. Twelve former staff members in the Prime
Minister's Office and Rashtrapati Bhavan Secretariat were sentenced to
10 years imprisonment in 2002.
• They were found guilty of entering into a criminal conspiracy with
officials of the French, Polish and German embassies, communicating
secret official codes, classified documents and information pertaining to
defence, shipping, transport, finance, planning, and Research and
analysis wing and Intelligent Bureau reports.
15. MAJOR CASES
• Kashmir times journalist Iftukhar Gilani was arrested in 2002 and
charged under OSA. He wrote about troops deploy in kashmir valley.
Later he found innocent.
• Also may famous Newspapers faced OSA including The Hindu, The
indian express, etc.,
