OFFICIAL SECRETS ACT

Official It is
secrets Act is applicable to
a pre-colonial the
law which government
was enacted servants and
in 1923 citizens
Framework for
dealing with This act ensures
the espionage, secrecy and
sedition or confidentiality in
governance-
other potential mostly in national
threats to security and
integrity of espionage
nation
Under this Act, spying, sharing secret information,
unauthorized use of uniforms, interference with
armed forcers in prohibited or restricted areas and
many more are considered punishable offences.

A person prosecuted under this Act shall be liable to

14 years imprisonment or fine or both
This Act does not define a “secret” or “official secrets”.

Public servants could deny any information treating it as a

secret when asked under RTI

Section 5 of the Act deals with the potential breaches of national

security. It is a punishable offence to share information that may
help an enemy state

A person can be found guilty even for retaining such information

in their possession
AMENDMENTS TO OFFICIAL SECRETS ACT
Since its enactment, there had been
no changes in the Official Secrets Act
Report on Second Administrative
Reforms Commission (SARC) in 2006
suggested that “Official Secrets Act
should be repealed and a chapter on
official secrets act should be inserted
to the National Securities Act , 1980
 Practical Aspect of Official Secrets Act
Journalist Tarakant Divedi
Practical use of this Act is was arrested under
to book the journalists Criminal Trespass under
when they publicize Official Secrets Act in 2017
information that may cause for reporting in Mumbai
embarrassment to the Mirror that the leaking roof
government or armed in RPF armory was
forces damaging expensive
weapons that were
brought after 26/11 terror
attack at Taj Hotel in
Mumbai
In 2002, Iftikhar Gilani- a journalist from J&K was arrested for
violating the Official Secrets Act .

He was accused of having in his possession secret documents

relating to deployment of military in Kashmir valley.

It was found later that the documents in his possession were

not secret and were easily available

The State withdrew the case against him in 2004 and he was
released
The other high profile case was ISRO spy case targeting
scientist S. Nambi Narayan. Before his recent acquittal, he
had faced a criminal trial under Official Secrets Act and was
accused of passing on rocket and cryogenic technology to
Pakistan for illegal gratification

The most recent gratification under this Act came in 2018,

when a Delhi Court sentenced former diplomat Madhuri
Gupta, who had served at the Indian High Commission in
Islamabad, to 3 years in jail for passing on sensitive
information to ISI
Official Secrets Act and RTI
It is not open The
to the Government
government to will have to
Section 22 of
deny access to justify its
the RTI Act
a document decision to
expressly says
demanded withhold
that it
through RTI information
overrides the
on the basis under the
provisions of
that it has been exception
Official
marked secret clauses
Secrets Act
under the mentioned in
Official the RTI Act
Secrets Act itself
 STORY BEHIND RAFALE DEAL
• Defense Ministry accepted proposals for 126 Medium
28th Aug, Multi Role Combat Aircraft Fighter Jets
2007

• 2 aircrafts were shortlisted - Euro Fighter and Rafale

May 2011

• Negotiations started with Dassault Aviation- French

Jan 2012 based company for Rafale aircrafts
 According to
the agreement, 108 Fighter
18 fighter jets Dassault
Jets were to
were to be Aviation will
be
acquired “Off transfer the
manufactured
the Shelf”. It technology to
means these in India by the
HAL for these
fighter jets Hindustan
108 fighter
were to be Aeronautics
jets
manufactured Ltd. (HAL)
in France itself
 • Dassault Aviation and HAL signed a “Work Share
Agreement”- For the 108 aircrafts , 70% of the

March 2014 work will be done by HAL and 30% by the

Dassault Aviation

• Government was changed and negotiations were

2014
not finalized
 • Dassault Aviation CEO Eric Trapper made a
25th March,
2015 statement that 95% of the negotiations were finalized

• 2 new companies were founded - Reliance Defense

28th March ,
Ltd and Adani Defense Systems and Technologies
2015 Ltd

• Joint statement was issued by both the governments

10th April, that new deal will be struck
2015
NEW RAFALE DEAL

According to this All the 36 aircrafts

deal, 36 aircrafts will will be acquired “Off
be purchased by the the Shelf”- in Fly
Indian Government Away Off Condition

On 23rd April, 2016- Inter

Government agreement was
finalized and signed
 OFFSET CLAUSE

It is a
requirement in
a contract The total cost
under which In New Rafale was Rs 60,000
supplier is deal - Offset Crores.
bound to Clause for Dassault
spend part of 50% of the Aviation was
money in a value was to invest Rs.
specific place mentioned 30,000 Crore
decided by in India
buyer and
supplier
 • Anil Ambani Reliance Group entered into a joint
3rd Oct,
venture with the Dassault Aviation. It was formed by
2017 the name of Dassault Reliance Aerospace Ltd

• One of the reports stated that- Out of 30,000 crore

21st June,
offset money- 21.000 crore will be invested in the
2017 Joint venture

• Dassault Aviation CEO gave a statement that- only

10% of the offset money will be given to Reliance and
21st Oct , the rest will be invested in nearly 100 of the
2018 companies
SUPREME COURT ON RAFALE DEAL

4 PIL’S were filed in the Supreme Court regarding the

investigation into Rafale Deal

5th Sep 2018- Supreme Court directed the Central Government

to share the details of deal in closed envelope and the same was
shared on 12th Nov, 2018

14th Dec, 2018 – S.C gave its verdict that it will not interfere in
the case of deal as it is outside its jurisdiction. It is not the
Court’s place to investigate sensitive defense deal or advise the
government on it
 The Supreme The bench also
Court dismissed a held that even the
string of petitions choice of the
seeking an Indian Offset
Manohar LAL independent Partner was to be
SHARMA v. probe into the of the vendor, in
Narendra 2015 Rafale deal, which the Union
DAMODARD according to it a of India had no
AS MODI & clean chit in all role to play, and
respects- there seems to
ORS. (2018) decision-making, have been no
pricing and commercial bias
procurement in the selection of
procedure the IOP.
 CURRENT CONTROVERSY – RAFALE DEAL REVIEW
PETITIONS
Review petitions were
Attorney General raised a
filed against the
judgment of the
Supreme Court
Attorney General remarked
that the review petitions needs
to be dismissed as the Court
cannot rely upon the stolen
documents as an evidence
Attorney General made a
statement that “These
documents were stolen
objection, seeking the
dismissal of the Rafale from the Defence
review petitions Ministry. These
documents are marked
secret and were published
by two newspapers...this
is an offence under the
official secrets act.”
Justice K M Joseph observed
that even stolen documents
can be looked into by the
Court as per well settled
principles under the
Evidence Act.