§ SECTION 130 · BSA 2023 · CHAPTER IX — OF WITNESSES

Official communications

Confidence in office. A public officer cannot be compelled to disclose communications made to him in official confidence — when he considers that disclosure would harm the public interest.

How to read Section 130

A public officer cannot be forced to reveal what was told to him in official confidence — where, in his view, disclosure would hurt the public interest.

Who & what

A public officer, and communications made to him in official confidence.

The protection

He cannot be compelled to disclose them.

The trigger

When he considers that the public interest would suffer by the disclosure.

The bare Act

The section in its own words — a single, self-contained rule.

Section 130 · verbatim

No public officer shall be compelled to disclose communications made to him in official confidence, when he considers that the public interests would suffer by the disclosure.

In short: where § 129 shields official records about affairs of State, § 130 shields confidential official communications. A public officer who has received a communication in official confidence cannot be forced to reveal it — but only when he considers that disclosure would harm the public interest. Three things to hold onto. It is a protection against compulsion only. It covers what was told to the officer in confidence in his official capacity — not everything he happens to know. And the trigger is the officer’s own assessment of harm to the public interest. Because it turns on that judgment, it operates within the broader law of public-interest immunity, where the court ultimately balances the interest in confidentiality against the interest in disclosure. Classic examples are the reports of informants and confidential official correspondence.

→ This carries forward IEA 1872 § 124 — the privilege for official communications made in confidence.

Glossary

public officer

A person holding a public office / serving the State.

official confidence

A communication received confidentially in the course of official duty.

compelled to disclose

Forced to reveal it in evidence — the section bars only compulsion.

when he considers

On the officer’s own assessment of the position.

public interests would suffer

The public good would be harmed by the disclosure.

§ 129 vs § 130

§ 129 protects unpublished State records (the department head decides); § 130 protects confidential communications (the officer decides).

The picture

A confidence received in office is not forced out — where the officer judges the public interest would suffer.

The section, part by part

Tap a part — the picture-story tells it first; the word-by-word text and example follow.

The privilege§ 129 vs § 130

the privilegeA confidence received in office cannot be forced out

In one lineA public officer cannot be compelled to disclose communications made to him in official confidence — when he considers disclosure would harm the public interest.

No public officer shall be compelled to disclose communications made to him in official confidence,no compulsion on official confidences…what was told to him in confidence in his official capacity cannot be forced out of him.

when he considers that the public interests would suffer by the disclosure.→ when he judges the public interest would sufferthe shield turns on the officer’s own assessment that disclosure would harm the public interest.

ExampleA police officer receives a tip-off from an informant in confidence. Asked in court to name the source, he may decline where he considers that revealing it would harm the public interest — he cannot be compelled to disclose it.

✗ Not thisThis protects confidential official communications, not everything an officer knows. And it bars only compulsion — it is not a blanket ban if the public-interest concern is absent.

§ 129 vs § 130Records vs communications — department head vs the officer

In one line§ 129 shields unpublished State records and the department head decides; § 130 shields confidential communications and the officer himself decides.

communications made to him in official confidence,§ 130’s subject: confidential communicationsnote the shift from § 129’s records to § 130’s communications received in confidence — and the decision moves to the officer.

ExampleA confidential file in a ministry engages § 129 (a record — the department head decides). An informant’s message to an officer engages § 130 (a communication — the officer decides).

✗ Not thisDo not merge the two. § 130 is not limited to ‘affairs of State’ records, and its gatekeeper is the officer’s public-interest judgment — not the department head’s permission.

Connected provisions

§ 129 · back

IEA 1872, § 124

Carried forward — the privilege for official communications made in confidence.

BSA 2023 § 130 — Official communications