Secret - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition secret

Definition :

Secret. A solicitor, and it is presumed also a barrister, is bound by law not to disclose his client's secrets, and the same rule does not appear to apply as between medical men and their patients, see as to this Chitty on Contracts, and Kitson v. Playfair, Times, 28th March, 1896. As to privileged communica-tions, however, the privilege is that of the client, not of the solicitor. The clerk of a professional or business man is under an implied contract not to disclose professional or trade secrets which he has learned in the course of his employment, Merryweather v. Moore, (1892) 2 Ch 518; Amber Size and Chemical Co., Ltd. v. Menzel, (1913) 2 Ch 239.

As to official secrets, see that title; and as to secrets of the confessional, see CONFESSION.

As to secret commission, corruptly taken by an agent from the party with whom he is employed by his principal to transact business for such principal, see COMMISSION; CORRUPT PRACTICES.

To secrete means, according to the dictionary 'to hide' in connection with a postal article addressed to some person the fact that it is retained in his possession by an officer of the post office in an almirah and that too for an inordinately long period would be tantamount to hiding that article, Radha Kishan v. State of Uttar Pradesh, AIR 1963 SC 822 (825). [Post Office Act, 1898, s. 52]

Something that is kept from knowledge of others or shared on with those concerned, Black's Law Dictionary, 7th Edn., p. 1355.