Penalties for spying
Section 3 of the Official Secrets Act, 1923 deals with penalties for spying. If any person for any purpose prejudicial to the safety or interests of the State-- (a) approaches, inspects, passes over or is in the vicinity of, or enters, any prohibited place; The Act came into force on 02 Apr 1923.
(1) If any person for any purpose prejudicial to the safety or interests of the State--
(a) approaches, inspects, passes over or is in the vicinity of, or enters, any prohibited place; or
(b) makes any sketch, plan, model, ornote which is calculated to be or might be or is intended to be, directly or indirectly, useful to an enemy; or
(c) 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 which is calculated to be or might be or is intended to be, directly or indirectly, useful to an enemy 1[or which relates to a matter the disclosure of which is likely to affect the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security of the State or friendly relations with foreign States];
he shall be 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.
(2) On a prosecution for an offence punishable under this section 2***, it shall not be necessary to show that the accused person was guilty of any particular act tending to show a purpose prejudicial to the safety or interests of the State, and, notwithstanding that no such act is proved against him, he may be convicted if, from the circumstances of the case or his conduct or his known character as proved, it appears that his purpose was a purpose prejudicial to the safety or interests of the State; and if any sketch, plan, model, article, note, document, or information relating to or used in any prohibited place, or relating to any thing in such a place, or any secret official code or pass word is made, obtained, collected, recorded, published or communicated by any person other than a person acting under lawful authority, and from the circumstances of the case or his conduct or his known character as proved it appears that his purpose was a purpose prejudicial to the safety or interests of the State, such sketch, plan, model, article, note, document, 3[information, code or pass word shall be presumed to have been made], obtained, collected, recorded, published or communicated for a purpose prejudicial to the safety or interests of the State.
Section 3, The Official Secrets Act, 1923 (Act 19 of 1923).
Cross-references
Extracted from the operative text of the enactments themselves. Every destination below exists in our corpus.
Referred to by 5
- s. 4 Communications with foreign agents to be evidence of commission of certain offences
- s. 6 Unauthorised use of uniforms; falsification of reports, forgery, personation, and falsedocuments
- s. 8 Duty of giving information as to commission of offences
- s. 10 Penalty for harbouring spies
- s. 12 Provisions of section 337 of Act 5 of 1898 to apply to offences under sections 3, 5 and 7
Related judgements & precedents
These are some judgments that construed this section, and hold precedence value. They hold authority on how to read, interpret and use this section.
-
Yashwant Sinha v. CBI
Court's Decision & Legal Precedent
Judgement of Main Case order-4.pdf 2019-04-10. Review Pet (Crl) 46/2019. Gogoi CJI/Kaul + Joseph concurrence. DATE-CHECK flagged 2016-06-01 / 2015-11-24 MoD-note fact dates (false positive); body is the named reportable, digitally signed 2019.04.10. Skip same-CNR order-16.pdf 2019-11-14 (pronouncement ROP) and do not attach the Rafale merits PDF. OSA 3/5 do not bar publication or production of documents already in the public domain; IEA 123 privilege is only for unpublished official records.
On this section: OSA s.3 (penalties for spying) does not bar publication or production of documents already in the public domain (Yashwant Sinha, 10 Apr 2019 Gogoi/Kaul reportable).
The holding above is the ratio decidendi as extracted from the judgment by eCourts India, reproduced unaltered — it is a rendering of the court's reasoning, not a substitute for its words. Read the order itself before relying on it.
Judgments citing this section
These may be obiter dicta or a precedent, for you to study. These are the judgments where this section is quoted.
-
… The broad facts leading to the present Appeal are that, - i. a case being FIR No.230/2020 came to be registered on 13.09.2020, at Police Station-Special Cell, Delhi against the Respondent - Accused for the offence punishable under Section 3,4 and 5 of the Official Secrets Act, 1923 (hereinafter referred as "the Act") and the investigation was taken up by the Special Cell, Delhi Police. - ii. During the course of the investigation, Section 120B of the Indian Penal Code was also added. - iii. The Respondent Accused was arrested on …
-
… the recovery of documents containing secret informations concerning safety and security of the nation and that the accused has not been able to offer any explanation, much less reasonable explanation as to why and for what purposes he has kept such documents in his possession. The provisions of sub Section (2) of Section 3 of the Official Secrets Act, 1923 deals with presumption. In the instant case, the prosecution evidence discloses that accused was in conscious possession of secret informations about military and Indian Army which he intended to pass over to enemy country and since no explanation has been offered by the accused for …
Questions about Section 3
What have the courts held on Section 3 of the Official Secrets Act?
Yashwant Sinha v. CBI (10 Apr 2019) is the leading judgment on this section among those set out below: OSA s.3 (penalties for spying) does not bar publication or production of documents already in the public domain (Yashwant Sinha, 10 Apr 2019 Gogoi/Kaul reportable).
How do I find court cases under Section 3 of the Official Secrets Act?
In judgments and charge sheets this section is written several ways, and each form finds a different set of orders. These search the full text of every order eCourtsIndia holds, best matches first: Official Secrets Act 1923 3, section 3 Official Secrets Act 1923, section 3 of the Official Secrets Act. People searching for it also type official secrets act 1923 section 3 and 3 4 5 official secrets act. Each opens the full list of orders on eCourtsIndia, where it can be narrowed by court, year and outcome. 1 reported judgment on this section is set out on this page, beginning with Yashwant Sinha v. CBI (10 Apr 2019).
What should I read with Section 3 of the Official Secrets Act, and has it changed?
5 other provisions in this corpus refer back to it.
When did Section 3 of the Official Secrets Act come into force?
Section 3 of the Official Secrets Act, cited as Official Secrets Act 1923 3, came into force on 02 Apr 1923, having been enacted on 02 Apr 1923. It is in force as at the date shown on this page.
Other sections of this Act
- 6. Unauthorised use of uniforms; falsification of reports, forgery, personation, and falsedocuments694 words
- 2. Definitions683 words
- 5. Wrongful communication, etc., of information517 words
- 4. Communications with foreign agents to be evidence of commission of certain offences359 words
- 11. Search-warrants278 words
- 13. Restriction of trial of offences245 words
Source and method. Compiled from the enactments of Parliament and of the State legislatures as published on India Code, and republished together with commentary and other original matter under section 52(1)(q)(ii) of the Copyright Act, 1957. Structured, cross-referenced and maintained by eCourtsIndia. Text as in force on 14 Oct 2026. This page is not a substitute for legal advice.