Objectives of IT legislation in

India
The Government of India enacted its
Information Technology Act 2000 with the
objectives stating officially as:
“to provide legal recognition for transactions
carried out by means of electronic data
interchange and other means of electronic
communication, commonly referred to as
“electronic commerce”, which involve the use of
alternatives to paper-based methods of
communication and storage of information, to
facilitate electronic filing of documents with the
Government agencies and further to amend the
Indian Penal Code, the Indian Evidence Act,
1872, the Bankers’ Books Evidence Act, 1891
and the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934 and for
matters connected therewith or incidental
thereto.”

What is a cyber crime?

Cyber Crime is not defined officially in IT
Act or in any other legislation. In fact, it
cannot be too. Offence or crime has been
dealt with elaborately listing various
acts and the punishments for each,
under the Indian Penal Code, 1860 and
 related legislations. Hence, the concept
of cyber crime is just a “combination of
crime and computer”.
Cybercrime in a narrow sense
(computer crime): Any illegal behavior
directed by means of electronic
operations that targets the security of
computer systems and the data
processed by them.
Cybercrime in a broader sense
(computer-related crime): Any illegal
behavior committed by means of, or in
relation to, a computer system or
network, including such crimes as illegal
possession and offering or distributing
information by means of a computer
system or network.
 Any contract for the sale or
conveyance of immovable property or
any interest in such property;
 Any such class of documents or
transactions as may be notified by the
Central Government

What Is Section 66C:-

Whoever, fraudulently or dishonestly make use
of the electronic signature, password or any
other unique identification feature of any other
person, shall be punished with imprisonment of
either description for a term which may extend
to three years and shall also be liable to fine
which may extend to rupees one lakh.

Relevent Cases:-

Case #1

 The CEO of an identity theft protection

company, Lifelock, Todd Davis’s social
security number was exposed by Matt
Lauer on NBC’s Today Show. Davis’
identity was used to obtain a $500 cash
advance loan.
Case #2

 Li Ming, a graduate student at West

Chester University of Pennsylvania faked
his own death, complete with a forged
obituary in his local paper. Nine months
later, Li attempted to obtain a new
driver’s license with the intention of
applying for new credit cards eventually.

More Information on Section 66C

of Information Technology Act,
2000:
News #1:: FIR registered against fake
profile of state cabinet minister Girish Bapat
in Pune (July 2017)

A case was registered at Bund Garden police

station in Pune, after a fake profile of the
minister was used to share inappropriate pictures
on a social networking website. According to the
police, a case was registered under Indian Penal
code (IPC) Section 500 and Section 66C of
Information Technology Act.

News #2:: FIR against AIB members for

making woman’s number viral (July 2017)

On May 17, AIB had posted a video titled “If

Apps were people”, in which a women character
Supriya, wants to sleep but the apps on her
phone turn out to be a major distraction. At 4.34
minutes of the video, one of the characters in the
video spells out the mobile number of another
character Rohan. Incidentally, the phone number
turned out to be of one Rohina Chhabra, a
resident of Karnivihar area of Jaipur in
Rajasthan. But for Rohina, its has turned into a
nightmare as getting continuous calls on her
number since then.

News #3:: Rajathan student arrested for

‘hacking’ WhatsApp accounts (July 2017)

On June 28 2017, the cyber offense wing of

Nashik Police had filed a case JOHN DOE under
section 66C of Information Technology Act after
receiving a complaints of WhatsApp Hacking from
various complainants in Nashik. The accused
Diptesh Salecha has now been arrested for
hacking into 31 Whatsapp Accounts.
News #4:: Paramilitary man arrested for
hacking Kareena Kapoor’s IT account to get
her mobile number (Jan 2017)

The cyber police on Monday arrested a 26-year-

old Central armed police employee who is a die
hard fan of actress Kareena Kapoor for allegedly
hacking her income tax account in September
last year. The official who hails from a North
Indian state has told the cyber police that he
hacked her Income Tax account so that he could
get access to her mobile number using which he
could talk to her. The accused has been booked
under impersonation, identity theft and relevant
sections of the Information Technology Act.

News #5:: Rs 71,000 lost in identity theft by

senior citizen (May 2017)

Though banks have been regularly providing

various alerts through Email and SMS as they
never ask any sensitive/confidential information
over the telephone or through email, etc. But a
senior citizen from Mumbai still got misled, when
some female misrepresented as a Bank Executive
and asked for various details as to Debit Card.
The account got debited of Rs 71,000
immediately.

News #6:: Mumbai man cheats English

Nationals for over Rs 18 lakhs through
Credit Card obtained fraudulently (June
2017)

A senior customer service executive Imran

Jumman Chauhan, a resident of Vikhroli,
fraudulently obtained credit card details of 53 UK
nationals and misused the information to do
online shopping worth Rs 18.33 lakh. He took
advantage of his position in a private company,
where he was working to provide customer
services to cardholders in UK. He was arrested
under sections 420 (cheating) and 408 (criminal
breach of trust by clerk or servant) of IPC and
section 66C (identity theft) of Information
Technology Act, 2000, before being granted bail !