Haryana YouTuber booked under Official Secrets Act for ‘spying for Pakistan’: What exactly has Jyoti Rani been charged with

What is the Official Secrets Act?

The Official Secrets Act, 1923, has its roots in the British colonial era. The original version was The Indian Official Secrets Act (Act XIV), 1889, brought in with the main objective of muzzling newspapers opposing the Raj’s policies.

It was amended and made more stringent in the form of The Indian Official Secrets Act, 1904, during Lord Curzon’s tenure as Viceroy of India. In 1923, a newer version was notified.

What are the Sections that Jyoti has been booked under?

She has been booked under Section 3 and Section 5.

Section 3 deals with ‘penalties for spying’, and under the ambit is anyone who, “for any purpose prejudicial to the safety or interests of the State, approaches, inspects, passes over or is in the vicinity of, or enters, any prohibited place; or makes any sketch, plan, model, or note which is calculated to be or might be or is intended to be, directly or indirectly, useful to an enemy; or obtains, collects, records or publishes or communicates to any other person any secret official code or pass word, or any sketch, plan, model, article or note or other document or information” that could be useful to an enemy.

Such an offence is “punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend, where the offence is committed in relation to any work of defence, arsenal, naval, military or air force establishment or station, mine, minefield, factory, dockyard, camp, ship or aircraft or otherwise in relation to the naval, military or air force affairs of Government or in relation to any secret official code, to fourteen years and in other cases to three years.”

Section 5 of the Act, meanwhile, covers ‘Wrongful communication, etc., of information’, and deals with anyone who discloses a secret code, plan, etc. to enemies of the state or to people he is not authorised to share them with. Even if the secret is not actively shared, but is disclosed through careless handling, the person responsible for the disclosure is culpable.

Also, not just the person sharing the information, but the one receiving it, is culpable under the Act.

The punishment for the offence includes “imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years, or with fine, or with both.”

And what is the BNS Section?

Section 152 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita deals with ‘Act endangering sovereignty, unity and integrity of India.’

The Section states, “Whoever, purposely or knowingly, by words, either spoken or written, or by signs, or by visible representation, or by electronic communication or by use of financial mean, or otherwise, excites or attempts to excite, secession or armed rebellion or subversive activities, or encourages feelings of separatist activities or endangers sovereignty or unity and integrity of India; or indulges in or commits any such act shall be punished with imprisonment for life or with imprisonment which may extend to seven years, and shall also be liable to fine.”

The Nyaya Sanhita qualifies the Section with, “Comments expressing disapprobation of the measures, or administrative or other action of the Government with a view to obtain their alteration by lawful means without exciting or attempting to excite the activities referred to in this section do not constitute an offence under this section.”