![]() However, later investigations revealed that the information he was accused of holding was no "official secret". He was charged with a case relating to releasing information which was a "secret". In June 2002, Jammu and Kashmir journalist Iftikhar Gilani was, arrested for violating the OSA. However, Section 22 of the RTI Act states that the provisions of this Act shall have effect notwithstanding anything inconsistent therewith contained in the Official Secrets Act, 1923, and any other law for the time being in force or in any instrument having effect by virtue of any law other than this Act. The Act empowers only persons in positions of authority to handle official secrets, and others who handle it in prohibited areas or outside them are liable for punishment. Punishments under the Act range from three to fourteen years of imprisonment, and 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. ![]() According to the Act, helping the enemy State can be in the form of communicating a sketch, plan, a model of an official secret, or passing of/transfer of official codes or passwords, to the enemy. It mentions that one cannot approach, inspect, or even pass over a prohibited government site or area. The Official Secrets Act, 1923 is India's anti-espionage act held over from the British colonial period which states that actions which involve helping an enemy State against India are strongly condemned. Threat to prosecute The Hindu under Official Secrets Act is silly, unless this government thinks it’s the enemy of the people 'Nobody will get any information from us on source of Rafale documents': N Ram weighs in on The Hindu 'stolen document' controversy The Editors Guild of India also condemned the remarks made by the attorney-general and said that any attempt to use the Official Secrets Act against journalists would be reprehensible. This kind of talk is an attempt to put pressure on the press to create a climate of fear." Whatever criminal action they are willing to take (against us), we are perfectly willing to face it. Many demands have been made to do away with this obnoxious legacy of the British Raj in India. Ram told Bloomberg Quint, "There’s been a longstanding discussion on the obnoxious legislation statute called the Official Secrets Act, 1923. On Wednesday, as the Supreme Court was hearing arguments on the Rafale deal case, Attorney-General KK Venugopal told the three-judge bench that the government could invoke the Official Secrets Act against The Hindu, for publishing papers related to official communication about the deal.Īmidst the controversy, the report's author and chairman of The Hindu Publishing Group N Ram asserted that all the reports on Rafale that have been published in the newspaper are "absolutely legitimate and justified", adding that nobody is going to make them reveal their sources.
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