Public Release of Declassified Files Pertaining to Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose by the Prime Minister of India

The Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi, in his meeting with a delegation of members of Netaji’s family at his residence in New Delhi on 14 October 2015, had announced that the Government of India would declassify the files relating to Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose and make them accessible to public.

In compliance with the said announcement the first lot of 33 files were declassified by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and handed over to the National Archives of India on 4 December 2015.

Subsequently, the Ministries of Home Affairs, and External Affairs too initiated the process of declassification of files relating to Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose in their respective collection which were then transferred over to the National Archives of India. Few more files were also transferred from the PMO.

As a first step, the National Archives of India is placing 100 files relating to Netaji in public domain after preliminary conservation treatment and digitization.

On the occasion of the birth anniversary of Netaji, the Prime Minister will release the digital copies of these files in public domain. This will meet the long-standing public demand to access these files; it will also facilitate scholars to carry out further research on Netaji.

The National Archives of India further plans to release digital copies of 25 declassified files on Netaji in public domain every month.

It may be added that in 1997 the National Archives of India had received 990 declassified files pertaining to the Indian National Army (Azad Hind Fauj) from the Ministry of Defence, and in 2012, 1030 files/ items pertaining the Khosla Commission (271 files/ items) and Justice Mukherjee Commission of Inquiry (759 files/ items) from the Ministry of Home Affairs. All these files/ items are already open to the public under the Public Records Rules, 1997.