WHY THE OFFICIAL SECRETS ACT WILL NEVER BE AMENDED

WHY THE OFFICIAL SECRETS ACT WILL NEVER BE AMENDED

The Second Administrative Reforms Commission chaired by Shri Veerapppa Moily, the present Law Minister, submitted its report titled ‘Right to Information – Master key to good governance’ to the Prime Minister  in June 2006. The report recommended that the Official Secrets Act, 1923 should be repealed or amended, to bring it in line with the Right to Information Act, 2005.

           In 2008 I filed RTI applications with the Ministry of Law and the MHA, asking for the action taken by the Government on the Report of the ARC. The DOPT, to whom the application was transferred by the Min of Law, informed me that this recommendation has been rejected by the Inter Ministerial Group (IMG) set up in the MHA. When I brought this to the notice of Shri Moily, he had assured me that he would pursue the matter with the Prime Minister.

           Meanwhile, the MHA said that the information could not be given since the meetings of the IMG were attended by officers from agencies under the RTI Act. I filed a complaint with the CIC, who asked the MHA to show him the files dealing with the case. On 25/1/2010 the CIC issued an order directing the MHA to give me a copy of the file noting on a particular page of the MHA file. He also directed the MHA to provide the titles and designations of the officers sitting in the IMG.

           The MHA sent a reply on 11/2/2010. They gave the ranks of officers from the MHA, CBI, Delhi Police, Min of Law etc. They also mentioned that a “Jt Secretary level officer from an organization exempted under Section 24 of the RTI Act’ was a member of the IMG. They did not give the titles ie appointments of the officers or a copy of the file noting, stating that they had sought some clarifications from the CIC.

           The important point to note concerns the composition of the IMG. It has representatives from the Police, CBI, Intelligence Agencies, Law Ministry etc, but not from the Armed Forces. The genesis of the OSA was the need to prevent spying and wrongful communication of military secrets. The importance of military secrets is highlighted by the provisions of Section 3 of the OSA, which prescribe a punishment of 14 years imprisonment for disclosure of military secrets, but only 3 years for all others. It appears odd that the military has been kept out of the deliberations of the IMG. 

I have written to the Home Minister as well as the Law Minister on 2/3/2010 pointing out this anomaly.