SC Order puts more teeth into Cyber Crimes

Supreme Court scrapped the 66A section of IT act which gives power to politics to take action on Internet posts. However experts say this scrapping may make the IT act totally toothless as majority cases are being booked under this section. In recent times, Cyber Crime cases in India continue to witness a north ward trend.

According to the data with the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), Cyber crime cases registered under IT Act increased from 1,791 in 2011 to 2,876 in 2012 and 4,356 in 2013. There is also some progress in dealing with such cases as the number of arrests too headed north from 1,184 in 2011 to 1,522 in 2012 and 2,098 in 2013. Some of the

Cyber Crime cases were even booked under Indian Penal Code, As many as 422 cases were registered in 2011 under the relevant sections of IPC dealing with cyber crimes, as against 601 in 2012 and 1,337 in 2013. Similarly, arrests under IPC rose from 446 in 2011 to 549 in 2012 and 1,203 in 2013. However experts say IT act in its previous form is more efficient in dealing with Cyber Crime than IPC. We will have to see if Cyber Crime cases will be difficult to deal with in the absence of 66A.