SC upholds sacking of IAF man who leaked information to wife

NEW DELHI: Disclosure of "classified information" by a defence personnel or government servant to his wife can cost him his job if she passes it on to anti-nationals, the Supreme Court held on Tuesday.

"Unfortunately, today if something is classified or confidential information, it becomes most widely circulated. Even if you had disclosed it to your office it is an offence," a bench of Justices Arijit Pasayat and Mukundakam Sharma observed.

The bench passed the observation while dismissing the appeal filed by Ullash Bhattacharjee, an Indian Air Force sergeant, was sacked by the Government on February 10 2003 after his wife Munmun Bhattacharjee was allegedly found leaking information to suspected anti-national elements.

The IAF sergeant was working at Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh, in 2002 when his wife collected the confidential information from him and allegedly passed it on to their neighbours Sushil Kumar and Kailash, both alleged Pakistani intelligence agents.

Bhattacharjee had appealed against the dismissal in the Delhi High Court which dismissed his plea following which he appealed in the apex court.

Appearing for Bhattacharjee, counsel Aishwarya Bhati and Karan Singh Bhati claimed that he was innocent and the confession about his involvement in the leakage of confidential information was extracted from him under duress by the authorities.