Indian Telegraph Act, 1885 · Chapter IV: Penalties
Section 26: Telegraph officer or other official making away with or altering, or unlawfully intercepting or disclosing, messages, or divulging purport of signals
The Indian Telegraph Act, 1885 was repealed by the Telecommunications Act, 2023 (from 26 June 2024; Part III still applies to transmission lines under the Electricity Act, 2003). The text is kept here because the judgments below apply it.
If any telegraph officer, or any person, not being a telegraph officer but having official duties connected with any office which is used as a telegraph office,—
(a) wilfully secretes makes away with or alters any message which he has received for transmission or delivery, or
(b) wilfully, and otherwise than in obedience to an order of the Central Government or of a State Government, or of an officer specially authorized [by the Central or a State Government] to make the order, omits to transmit, or intercepts or detains, any message or any part thereof, or otherwise than in pursuance of his official duty or in obedience to the direction of a competent Court, discloses the contents or any part of the contents of any me ssage, to any person not entitled to receive the same, or
(c) divulges the purport of any telegraphic signal to any person not entitled to become acquainted with the same,
he shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years, or with fine, or with both.
Source: India Code (indiacode.gov.in), the consolidated text published by the Legislative Department, Government of India. Text as updated on India Code on 15 October 2026. Words in square brackets [ ] were inserted or substituted by later amending Acts, and *** marks words omitted by an amendment. The amendment footnotes are not reproduced here. Official text on India Code.