The Supreme Court on Friday sought a response from the Central Bureau of Investigation on a former Research and Analysis Wing official's plea seeking documents relied upon by the probe agency in a trial against him under the Official Secrets Act.
A bench of Justices JK Maheshwari and Vijay Bishnoi issued the notice to the CBI seeking its reply on a plea by Major General V K Singh (retired).
Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for Singh, submitted that the high court on September 19 modified an order of the trial court and stated that the documents relied upon by the CBI in the case can only be inspected by the counsel for petitioner and not supplied to him owing to their sensitive nature.
"It is normal procedure under Section 207 of the CrPC where the accused is supplied the document relied upon by the prosecution. The magistrate allowed supply of documents but the high court modified it," Bhushan said.
Singh has served in the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) and has written a book in which certain allegations of corruption in procurement of equipment were made but the CBI booked him under the Official Secrets Act (OSA), Bhushan said.
The bench said it is seeking CBI's response on the plea and posted the matter for hearing after four weeks.
The CBI has registered a case against Singh on September 20, 2007, on a complaint that he allegedly revealed secret information by publication of his book titled 'India's External Intelligence, Secrets of Research and Analysis Wing'.
Search warrants were issued against Singh on September 20, 2007, and a compliance report was filed on September 24, 2007, in the court.
On April 7, 2008, the Centre authorised the filing of a complaint under Section 13(3) of the Official Secrets Act and a chargesheet was filed in the case under Sections 3 and 5 of the Official Secrets Act, 1923, and Sections 409 and 120B of the IPC on April 11, 2008, with request to keep the classified documents in sealed cover.
The trial court took cognisance of the chargesheet on January 31, 2009, for the offences under Sections 3 and 5 of the Official Secrets Act, 1923, and under Sections 409, 120B of the IPC.
On December 12, 2009, the chief metropolitan magistrate allowed the application filed by the respondents under Section 207 of the CrPC and directed the CBI to supply the documents sought by Singh to them after moving an appropriate application for the desealing of the documents.
However, considering the sensitive nature of the documents, the CMM clarified that the documents supplied to the respondents would remain in the personal custody of the counsel representing Singh, who were to ensure that the documents are not circulated in any manner.
The Delhi High Court on September 19 noted that the CBI is not opposed to the inspection of the documents but in view of their sensitive nature, it sought that a hard copy of the same be not supplied to him.
It said the court deems it expedient to allow the inspection of the documents sought by Singh as opposed to the supply of the copies of the documents to the counsel representing him.
"In view of the above, the present petition is allowed to the extent that the impugned order is modified and the respondents along with their duly authorised counsel are permitted to inspect the documents lying with the trial court as and when required to enable the respondents to effectively defend themselves during the trial," it had ordered.
Aggrieved by the order, Singh approached the top court challenging the high court order.
On May 31, 2023, the high court had refused to quash a CBI case registered against Singh and said that whether the revelations in the book were likely to affect the sovereignty, integrity and security of the country was a matter of trial and what prejudices national security cannot be decided by courts.
Singh, who was a former joint secretary of India's external spy agency, earlier contended before the high court that his intention to write the book was to highlight issues of lack of accountability and corruption in R&AW and the allegation of revealing secrets harmful to the country's security and sovereignty were totally baseless and unfounded.
Singh retired from service in June 2002 and his book was published in June 2007. The FIR was registered against him in 2008.
© 2025