THE OFFICIAL SECRETS ACT

Many RTI activists have been asking for the abolition or drastic amendment of the Official Secrets Act (OSA). In 2006, the second Administrative Reforms Commission (ARC) recommended the repeal of the OSA and inclusion of a new chapter in the National Security Act to deal with espionage. A coregroup on administrative reforms subsequentlystudiedthe ARC recommendations, which were then forwarded to a Group of ministers headed by Pranab Mukherjee for a decision. The GOM accepted many recommendations of the ARC, but rejected the suggestion for repeal of the OSA. It instead sought amendments to the OSA to do away with ambiguity in defining the terms ‘secret’, ‘espionage’ and ‘enemy state’ and, thus, guard against use of the Act to block information. It seems that the Home Ministry is of the opinion that the 1923 anti-espionage law has stood the test of time and that there has been no significant misuse of its provisions to justify changes in its provisions.