Report No. 43

7.64. Provision of section 5(4) as to punishment to be amended.-

The punishment for offences under sub-section (1) of section 5 is, at present, mentioned separately in section 5(4). We propose to include it in sub-section (1). Further, the present punishment-imprisonment of either description for three years or fine or both-is, in our view, inadequate, for some cases. We propose a maximum of seven years for important official secrets, and three years in other cases. In the former case, imprisonment will be mandatory, but fine can be added. In the latter case, the existing punishment will continue. Under the category of important official secrets we include secrets intended or likely to be directly or indirectly useful to an enemy or prejudicial to the national security.