Iftikhar Gilani’s arrest under this controversial Act which kept him in jail for a long seven months until the Central Government withdrew the cases against him on pressure of various quarters, has again shown how the OSA can be misused by the Government. Gilani, Chief of Bureau of The Kashmir Times, had been charged under the Official Secrets Act for possessing "sensitive" documents relating to troop deployment in Jammu and Kashmir. The documents, which he possessed, were obtained from The Institute of Strategic Studies, Islamabad. It is Gilani who brought it to the knowledge of the Central Government that Pakistan knew the movement of the Indian troops along the border of Jammu and Kashmir. The areas of restriction in the Freedom of Information Act include information on atomic energy, unconventional weaponry and strategic deployment and movement of the defence forces. However the Centre itself has failed to suppress the information on the movement of Indian troops in Jammu and Kashmir which was passed on to Pakistan. On the other hand, the Government charged an inquisitive journalist, who collected the information from across the border, under the infamous OSA. How the Centre can term third-hand information on deployment of troops as sensitive, especially when it was collected from an enemy source? It was the failure of the Intelligence of the Government to keep the strategic information secret. The Kargil war caught Military Intelligence of India napping which enabled the Pakistani soldiers to intrude into Indian territory long before the Indian army caught scent of them.

Though Gilani is free at last, after good sense prevailed upon the Government, the episode has given a wrong signal to the journalist community of the country. No journalist of the country will now dare carry any document pertaining to information on extremist organisations and strategic matters however low their security value may be. .

In this era of information flooding, no law, however stringent, can stop the flow of information. The info highway has made even geographical barriers totally irrelevant. One does not have to carry incriminatory documents physically. Just a click of a mouse can do it for him. Therefore, the OSA can best serve the Government in concealing the documents that reveal the irregularities and irresponsible activities in the administration and the government itself. The OSA cannot effectively check persons who intend to harm the nation. Only journalists like Gilani, whose integrity cannot be questioned, and innocent people who are unaware of such an obnoxious Act, can be harassed in the name of security.

The shroud covering administration corruption had began to shake for the first time when the Supreme Court of India observed in the famous S. P. Gupta vs. President of India (1982) case that disclosure of information about the government and the right to know about the government come from the guarantee of free speech and expression in Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution of India. This observation of the apex court came in a series of judgements in that period. Every time we clamp a restriction on the free flow of information, we should keep in mind the observation of the apex court in 1982 in the S. P. Gupta case that:

"….therefore disclosure of information in regard to the functioning of the government must be the rule, and secrecy an exception justified only where the strictest requirement of public interest so demands. The approach of the court must be to attenuate the area of secrecy as much as possible consistent with the requirement of public interest, bearing in mind all the time that disclosure also serves an important aspect of public interest."

We cannot afford to degrade the sovereignty and integrity of our country. However, India which has been struck by several scandals in defence deals should be cautious in using OSA and the clauses that deny information on specific matters incorporated in the Freedom of Information Act, so that information on such dubious defence deals cannot be suppressed on the plea of harming the sovereignty and integrity of the country. Suppression of information, except in a few areas such as development of scientific defence devices, which include atomic energy, unconventional weaponry, etc. and strategic deployment and movement of the defence forces is not justified. People should also have the right to know what happened at the frontier, what triggered a war with a neighbouring country, if not immediately, at least after the lapse of a specified period of time.

This obsolete Act has failed to keep secrets from undesirable persons or persons with harmful intent and even from the enemies of the nation. On the contrary, it has been misused mostly to harass people who reveal corruption and irregularities in high places. Surprisingly, successive governments at the Centre have either ignored or intentionally foiled any move to amend OSA and this archaic Act remained unrevised since its inception. The spirit of the Freedom of Information Act demands repeal of OSA. The arrest of Gilani and subsequent withdrawal of the case against him after an ordeal of seven months of captivity, in the "public interest" provokes all sensible citizens to raise the demand for repealing of this Act made by the British imperialists to subdue and exploit our nation.