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Offences & Penalties
Offences & Penalties
Numerous online crimes have been created by faster worldwide connectivity and these increased crimes have led to the need for laws for protection. The Indian Parliament passed the Information Technology Act 2000, which was conceived on the Model Law of the United Nations Commissions on International Trade Law ( UNCITRAL), in order to proceed with the changing generation.
The law defines the crimes along with the penalties for each type of crime in a detailed way.
Offences
Cyber Offences are illegitimate acts that are carried out in a classy manner where either the system or the target is the device or both.
Cyber-crime typically involves 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 that are classified in the I.T. The 2000 Act is as follows—
- Tampering with the source documents for the computer.
- Computer System Hacking.
- The publishing of obscene information in electronic form.
- Controller Power to provide directions.
- Directions from the Controller to a subscriber to expand information decryption facilities.
- System protected.
- Penalty for being misrepresented.
- Penalty for confidentiality and privacy breach.
- The penalty for publishing a digital signature certificate is false in some information.
- Publication for misleading purposes.
- Act to extend outside of India Confiscation for offence or contravention committed.
- Penalties or confiscation in order not to interfere with other penalties.
- Power to examine offences.
The following table shows the offence and penalties against all the mentioned sections of the I.T. Act −
| Section | Offence | Punishment | Bailability and Congizability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 65 | Computer Source Code manipulation | Imprisonment up to 3 years or fine up to Rs 2 lakhs | Offence is Bailable, Cognizable and triable by Court of JMFC. |
| 66 | Computer Related Offences | Imprisonment up to 3 years or fine up to Rs 5 lakhs | Offence is Bailable, Cognizable and |
| 66-A | Sending offensive messages through Communication service, etc... | Imprisonment up to 3 years and fine | Offence is Bailable, Cognizable and triable by Court of JMFC |
| 66-B | Dishonestly receiving stolen computer resource or communication device | Imprisonment up to 3 years and/or fine up to Rs. 1 lakh | Offence is Bailable, Cognizable and triable by Court of JMFC |
| 66-C | Identity Theft | Imprisonment of either description up to 3 years and/or fine up to Rs. 1 lakh | Offence is Bailable, Cognizable and triable by Court of JMFC |
| 66-D | Cheating by Personation by using computer resource | Imprisonment of either description up to 3 years and /or fine up to Rs. 1 lakh | Offence is Bailable, Cognizable and triable by Court of JMFC |
| 66-E | Violation of Privacy | Imprisonment up to 3 years and /or fine up to Rs. 2 lakh | Offence is Bailable, Cognizable and triable by Court of JMFC |
| 66-F | Cyber Terrorism | Imprisonment extend to imprisonment for Life | Offence is Non-Bailable, Cognizable and triable by Court of Sessions |
| 67 | Publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form | On first Conviction, imprisonment up to 3 years and/or fine up to Rs. 5 lakh On Subsequent Conviction imprisonment up to 5 years and/or fine up to Rs. 10 lakh | Offence is Bailable, Cognizable and triable by Court of JMFC |
| 67-A | Publishing or transmitting of material containing sexually explicit act, etc... in electronic form | On first Conviction imprisonment up to 5 years and/or fine up to Rs. 10 lakh On Subsequent Conviction imprisonment up to 7 years and/or fine up to Rs. 10 lakh | Offence is Non-Bailable, Cognizable and triable by Court of JMFC |
| 67-B | Publishing or transmitting of material depicting children in sexually explicit act etc., in electronic form | On first Conviction imprisonment of either description up to 5 years and/or fine up to Rs. 10 lakh On Subsequent Conviction imprisonment of either description up to 7 years and/or fine up to Rs. 10 lakh | Offence is Non Bailable, Cognizable and triable by Court of JMFC |
| 67-C | Intermediary intentionally or knowingly contravening the directions about Preservation and retention of information | Imprisonment up to 3 years and fine | Offence is Bailable, Cognizable. |
| 68 | Failure to comply with the directions given by Controller | Imprisonment up to 2 years and/or fine up to Rs. 1 lakh | Offence is Bailable, Non-Cognizable. |
| 69 | Failure to assist the agency referred to in sub section (3) in regard interception or monitoring or decryption of any information through any computer resource | Imprisonment up to 7 years and fine | Offence is Non-Bailable, Cognizable. |
| 69-A | Failure of the intermediary to comply with the direction issued for blocking for public access of any information through any computer resource | Imprisonment up to 7 years and fine | Offence is Non-Bailable, Cognizable. |
| 69-B | Intermediary who intentionally or knowingly contravenes the provisions of sub-section (2) in regard monitor and collect traffic data or information through any computer resource for cybersecurity | Imprisonment up to 3 years and fine | Offence is Bailable, Cognizable. |
| 70 | Any person who secures access or attempts to secure access to the protected system in contravention of provision of Sec. 70 | Imprisonment of either description up to 10 years and fine | Offence is Non-Bailable, Cognizable. |
| 70-B | Indian Computer Emergency Response Team to serve as national agency for incident response. Any service provider, intermediaries, data centres, etc., who fails to prove the information called for or comply with the direction issued by the ICERT. | Imprisonment up to 1 year and/or fine up to Rs. 1 lakh | Offence is Bailable, Non-Cognizable |
| 71 | Misrepresentation to the Controller to the Certifying Authority | Imprisonment up to 2 years and/ or fine up to Rs. 1 lakh. | Offence is Bailable, Non-Cognizable. |
| 72 | Breach of Confidentiality and privacy | Imprisonment up to 2 years and/or fine up to Rs. 1 lakh. | Offence is Bailable, Non-Cognizable. |
| 72-A | Disclosure of information in breach of lawful contract | Imprisonment up to 3 years and/or fine up to Rs. 5 lakh. | Offence is Cognizable, Bailable |
| 73 | Publishing electronic Signature Certificate false in certain particulars | Imprisonment up to 2 years and/or fine up to Rs. 1 lakh | Offence is Bailable, Non-Cognizable. |
| 74 | Publication for fraudulent purpose | Imprisonment up to 2 years and/or fine up to Rs. 1 lakh | Offence is Bailable, Non-Cognizable. |
Compounding of Offences
Accordance with section 77-A of I. T. Act, any Court of competent jurisdiction may compound offences other than those for which, under the Act, a sentence of life or imprisonment for a period of more than three years has been issued.
There shall be no offence compounded if −
- The accused is liable to either increased punishment or punishment of various kinds because of his previous conviction; OR
- The offence affects the country's socio-economic conditions; OR
- An offence against a child under the age of 18 years was committed; OR
- There was an offence committed against a woman.
An application for compounding can be filed in the court of appeal by a person alleging an offence under this Act. Subsequently, the crime is pending trial and the provisions of Sections 265-B and 265-C of Cr. P.C. C. Relevant.
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