Official secrets act

Office secrets Act

1. OFFICIAL SECRETS ACT NAVINKUMAR P K MADRAS CHRISTIAN COLLEGE

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. D isclosure 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 15 th june 2005 and it came into existence on 12 th 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.,

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