Official Secrets Act is an obstacle to the implementation of Rights to Information act

Recently, the government has sought action against ‘The Hindu’ newspaper and news agency ANI under Official Secrets Act, 1923 for publishing documents related to India’s deal to buy 36 Rafael jets from France. Judiciary however made it crystal clear and dispelled the doubts many of us have regarding Officials Secrets Act being an obstacle in effective implementation of Right to Information Act. 

Following are the provisions that clarify what happens when OSA and RTI Act come into interaction and have conflict: 

•Whenever there is a conflict between the two laws, the provisions of the RTI Act override those of the OSA. 

•Section 22 of the RTI Act states that its provisions will have effect notwithstanding anything that is inconsistent with them in the OSA. 

•Similarly, under Section 8(2) of the RTI Act, a public authority may allow access to information covered under the OSA, “if the public interest in disclosure outweighs the harm to the protected interests”. 

•Section 24 mandates even security and intelligence organisations to disclose information on corruption and human rights violations. 

Inference about OSA being an obstacle in implementation of RTI Act: 

•One needs to understand that when RTI movement was gathering momentum, the debate between need for secrecy and need for transparency already existed. Beyond a point, it was not acceptable to those leading the movement to accept only dilution of OSA but they demanded a full-fledged RTI Act. 

•Hence, the way RTI Act has been crafted and provisions put very much takes care of the fact that OSA must not become a roadblock in releasing the information. If we closely read above provisions, it becomes quite clear that OSA, for one, is not an obstacle. In case of conflict, law is clear to give way to RTI. But yes, there are many other issues that don’t allow for effective implementation of RTI Act. 

Rather than getting carried away by draconian provisions of OSA, the need is to look at the entire process of RTI Act and mend the loopholes. Improvements at levels of people, institutions and government functionaries is needed.

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