Committee formed to review OSA-RTI conflict

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 15

The Centre today announced the formation of a three-member committee of senior bureaucrats to study the review of the Official Secrets Act (OSA) in the wake of the requirements under the Right to Information (RTI).

The committee, including the Secretaries of Home, Law and Personnel, was formed after the Cabinet Secretary met in February and decided to study the issue in depth, official sources said adding that the first meeting will be held tomorrow.

That the move came amid mounting pressure for declassification of files relating to the Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose led to an interpretation that the government has moved with alacrity on the specific issue.

The committee will examine certain provisions of the OSA and the RTI Act and whether and how much old official files could be declassified, the sources said.

Over the past few years, there has been sporadic discussion on the need for India to adopt an official policy of declassification of official files, a practice prevalent in many western democracies leading to research on issues.

The OSA came in 1923. It allows classification of documents by government. Recently, there were reports of the government being concerned over the manner in which such classified information on sensitive subjects was being made public through media.

The debate over declassification grew shriller over the past two days following reports of how Netaji’s family was kept under surveillance by the IB for over two decades much of it during PM Jawaharlal Nehru’s tenure.

Netaji’s grandnephew Surya Kumar Bose on Tuesday had met the PM in Berlin.