The Official Secrets Act, 1923
Section 13. Restriction of trial of offences.
(1) No Court (other than that of a Magistrate of the first class specially empowered in this behalf by the 1 [appropriate Government] which is inferior to that of a District or Presidency Magistrate shall try any offence under this Act.
(2) If any person under trial before a Magistrate for an offence under this Act at any time before a charge is framed claims to be tried by the Court of Session, the Magistrate shall, if he does not discharge the accused, commit the case for trial by that Court, notwithstan ding that it is not a case exclusively triable by that Court.
(3) No Court shall take cognizance of any offence under this Act unless upon complaint made by order of, or under authority from, the 2 [appropriate Government] 3 *** or some officer empowered by the 4 [appropriate Government] in this behalf.
5 * * * * *
(4) For the purposes of the trial of a person for an offence under this Act, the offence may be deemed to have been committed either at the place in which the same actually wa s committed or at any place in 6 [India] in which the offender may be found.
7 [(5) In this section, the "appropriate Government" means—
(a) in relation to any offences under section 5 not connected with a prohibited place or with a foreign power, the State Government; and
(b) in relation to any other offence, the Central Government.]
Source: IndiaCode Portal, Legislative Department, Ministry of Law and Justice, Government of India. Open on India Code Check against the official text before relying on it.
Cases citing this section
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Source: Order and office-report PDFs whose text cites the section, read by rule (document_citations); each case through its orders and office reports that carry the PDF