Bombay HC says police station not a prohibited place under OSA, video recording on premises not an offence

A police station is not included as a prohibited place as defined under the Official Secrets Act, and hence, shooting a video inside a police station cannot be an offence, the Bombay High Court's Nagpur bench has observed.

According to a report of PTI, A division bench of Justices Manish Pitale and Valmiki Menezes in July this year quashed a case lodged against one Ravindra Upadyay under the Official Secrets Act (OSA) for recording a video inside a police station in March 2018.

The bench in its order referred to section 3 and section 2(8) of the OSA pertaining to spying at prohibited places and noted that a police station is not specifically mentioned as a prohibited place in the Act.

The definition of prohibited place as defined in section 2(8) of the Official Secrets Act is relevant. It is an exhaustive definition, which does not specifically include police station as one of the places or establishments, which could be included in the definition prohibited place, the court said in its order.