Secrecy, Inventions and the Offences Under the Atomic Energy Act

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No patent may be granted for a nuclear invention, no information may be disclosed, and a prosecution for disclosing it needs the Attorney General's consent.

In the wording a student can write in an exam: section 20(1) provides that no patents shall be granted for inventions which in the opinion of the Central Government are useful for or relate to the production, control, use or disposal of atomic energy, or the prospecting, mining, extraction, production, physical and chemical treatment, fabrication, enrichment, canning or use of any prescribed substance or radioactive substance, or the ensuring of safety in atomic energy operations; and section 20(7) provides that any invention in the field of atomic energy conceived whether in establishments controlled by the Central Government or under any contract, sub-contract, arrangement or other relationship with it shall be deemed to have been made or conceived by the Central Government, irrespective of whether that relationship involves financial participation of or assistance from the Central Government.

A currency note, as of September 2026. The Sustainable Harnessing and Advancement of Nuclear Energy for Transforming India Act, 2025 (Act No. 39 of 2025, the SHANTI Act) was enacted in December 2025 but is not yet in force as of September 2026; on commencement its section 91 repeals the Act of 1962, so the sections in this chapter are the law until then. Under its section 39 the Central Government may declare as restricted information anything not in the public domain which in its opinion is detrimental to national security or public interest, including the siting, design, construction and operation of a nuclear plant, and section 39(4) debars such information from disclosure under the Right to Information Act, 2005. Section 38 replaces the bar in section 20 with a power to grant patents for inventions for the peaceful uses of nuclear energy and radiation, an invention relating to an activity reserved to the Central Government, or sensitive or with national security implications, being unpatentable and deemed the Central Government's. Disclosing restricted information carries up to ten years' rigorous imprisonment (section 71(4)), a prosecution still needing the Attorney-General's consent (section 74); and under section 37 the Central Government fixes the tariff for nuclear electricity notwithstanding the Electricity Act, 2003.

Section 18: restricted information

Section 18(1) empowers the Central Government to restrict the disclosure of information, in a document, drawing, photograph, plan, model or any other form whatsoever, relating to, representing or illustrating an existing or proposed plant used or proposed to be used for producing, developing or using atomic energy; the purpose or method of operation of such a plant; or any process operated or proposed to be operated in it.