Offence and Penalties

The faster world-wide connectivity has developed numerous online crimes and these increased offences led to the need of laws for protection. In order to keep in stride with the changing generation, the Indian Parliament passed the Information Technology Act 2000 that has been conceptualized on the United Nations Commissions on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) Model Law.

The law defines the offenses in a detailed manner along with the penalties for each category of offence.

Offences

 

Cyber offences are the illegitimate actions, which are carried out in a classy manner where either the computer is the tool or target or both.

Cyber-crime usually includes the following:

· Unauthorized access of the computers

· Data diddling

· Virus/worms attack

· Theft of computer system

· Hacking

· Denial of attacks

· Logic bombs

· Trojan attacks

· Internet time theft

· Web jacking

· Email bombing

· Salami attacks

· Physically damaging computer system.

The offences included in the I.T. Act 2000 are as follows:

· Tampering with the computer source documents.

· Hacking with computer system.

· Publishing of information which is obscene in electronic form.

· Power of Controller to give directions.

· Directions of Controller to a subscriber to extend facilities to decrypt information.

· Protected system.

· Penalty for misrepresentation.

· Penalty for breach of confidentiality and privacy.

· Penalty for publishing Digital Signature Certificate false in certain particulars.

· Publication for fraudulent purpose.

· Act to apply for offence or contravention committed outside India Confiscation.

· Penalties or confiscation not to interfere with other punishments.

· Power to investigate offences.

The following table shows the offence and penalties against all the mentioned sections of the I.T. Act:

Section

Bailability and

Offence

Punishment

Congizability

Imprisonment up to

Offence is Bailable,

Cognizable and

Tampering with

3 years or fine up

Section 65

triable by Court of

Computer Source Code

to Rs 2 lakhs

JMFC.

Imprisonment  up

Offence is Bailable,

Cognizable

and

Computer Related

to 3 years or fine

Cognizable and

Section 66

triable  by

Court

Offences

up to Rs 5 lakhs

triable by Court of

of JMFC

JMFC

Sending offensive

Offence is Bailable,

messages through

Imprisonment up to

Cognizable and

Section 66-A

Communication

3 years and fine

triable by Court of

service, etc...

JMFC

Dishonestly receiving

Offence is Bailable,

Imprisonment up to

Cognizable and

stolen computer

Section 66-B

3 years and/or fine

triable by Court of

resource or

up to Rs. 1 lakh

JMFC

communication device

Imprisonment of

either description

Offence is Bailable,

Section 66-C

Identity Theft

up to 3 years

Cognizable and

and/or fine up to

triable by Court of

Rs. 1 lakh

JMFC

Imprisonment of

Cheating by

either description

Offence is Bailable,

up to 3 years and

Cognizable and

Section 66-D

Personation by using

/or fine up to Rs. 1

triable by Court of

computer resource

lakh

JMFC

Imprisonment up to

Offence is Bailable,

Section 66-E

Violation of Privacy

3 years and /or fine

Cognizable and

up to Rs. 2 lakh

triable by Court of

JMFC

		Imprisonment	Offence is Non-
		extend to
			Bailable, Cognizable
Section 66-F	Cyber Terrorism	imprisonment for
			and triable by Court
		Life
			of Sessions
		On first Conviction,
		imprisonment up to
		3 years and/or fine
	Publishing or	up to Rs. 5 lakh On	Offence is Bailable,
Section 67	transmitting obscene	Subsequent	Cognizable and
	material in electronic	Conviction	triable by Court of
	form	imprisonment up to	JMFC
		5 years and/or fine
		up to Rs. 10 lakh
		On first Conviction
		imprisonment up to
	Publishing or	5 ears and/or fine
		up to Rs. 10 lakh	Offence is Non-
	transmitting of material
		On Subsequent	Bailable, Cognizable
Section 67-A	containing sexually
		Conviction	and triable by Court
	explicit act, etc... in
		imprisonment up to	of JMFC
	electronic form
		7 years and/or fine
		up to Rs. 10 lakh
		On first Conviction
		imprisonment of
		either description
		up to 5 years
	Publishing or	and/or fine up to	Offence is Non
	transmitting of material	Rs. 10 lakh On
			Bailable, Cognizable
Section 67-B	depicting children in	Subsequent
			and triable by Court
	sexually explicit act	Conviction
			of JMFC
	etc., in electronic form	imprisonment of
		either description
		up to 7 years
		and/or fine up to
		Rs. 10 lakh
	Intermediary
	intentionally or
	knowingly contravening
Section 67-C	the directions about	Imprisonment up to	Offence is Bailable,
	Preservation and	3 years and fine	Cognizable.
	retention of
	information
Section 68	Failure to comply with	Imprisonment up to	Offence is Bailable,
	the directions given by	2 years and/or fine	Non-Cognizable.

	Controller	up to Rs. 1 lakh
	Failure to assist the
	agency referred to in
	sub section (3) in
	regard interception or	Imprisonment up to	Offence is Non-
Section 69	monitoring or
		7 years and fine	Bailable, Cognizable.
	decryption of any
	information through
	any computer resource
	Failure of the
	intermediary to comply
	with the direction
Section 69-A	issued for blocking for	Imprisonment up to	Offence is Non-
	public access of any	7 years and fine	Bailable, Cognizable.
	information through
	any computer resource
	Intermediary who
	intentionally or
	knowingly contravenes
	the provisions of sub-
	section (2) in regard	Imprisonment up to	Offence is Bailable,
Section 69-B	monitor and collect
		3 years and fine	Cognizable.
	traffic data or
	information through
	any computer resource
	for cybersecurity
	Any person who
	secures access or
	attempts to secure	Imprisonment of
Section 70	access to the protected	either description	Offence is Non-
	system in	up to 10 years and	Bailable, Cognizable.
	contravention of	fine
	provision of Sec. 70
	Indian Computer
	Emergency Response
	Team to serve as
	national agency for
	incident response. Any	Imprisonment up to	Offence is Bailable,
Section 70-B	service provider,	1 year and/or fine
			Non-Cognizable
	intermediaries, data	up to Rs. 1 lakh
	centres, etc., who fails
	to prove the
	information called for
	or comply with the

	direction issued by the
	ICERT.
	Misrepresentation to	Imprisonment up to	Offence is Bailable,
	the Controller to the
Section 71		2 years and/ or fine	Non-Cognizable.
	Certifying Authority
		up to Rs. 1 lakh.
	Breach of	Imprisonment up to
	Confidentiality and		Offence is Bailable,
Section 72		2 years and/or fine
	privacy		Non-Cognizable.
		up to Rs. 1 lakh.
	Disclosure of	Imprisonment up to	Offence is
		3 years and/or fine
Section 72-A	information in breach		Cognizable, Bailable
		up to Rs. 5 lakh.
	of lawful contract
	Publishing electronic
	Signature Certificate	Imprisonment up to	Offence is Bailable,
Section 73	false in certain	2 years and/or fine
			Non-Cognizable.
	particulars	up to Rs. 1 lakh
		Imprisonment up to
Section 74	Publication for	2 years and/or fine	Offence is Bailable,
	fraudulent purpose	up to Rs. 1 lakh	Non-Cognizable.

 

Compounding of Offences

 

As per Section 77-A of the I. T. Act, any Court of competent jurisdiction may compound offences, other than offences for which the punishment for life or imprisonment for a term exceeding three years has been provided under the Act.

No offence shall be compounded if:

· The accused is, by reason of his previous conviction, is liable to either enhanced punishment or to the punishment of different kind; OR

· Offence affects the socio economic conditions of the country; OR

· Offence has been committed against a child below the age of 18 years; OR

· Offence has been committed against a woman.

The person alleged of an offence under this Act may file an application for compounding in the Court. The offence will then be pending for trial and the provisions of Sections 265-B and 265-C of Cr. P.C. shall apply.