Lok Sabha Question No. 226 (STARRED), answered on 2024-08-07
Subject: Bringing Financial Cyber Crime Offences under Non-Bailable Category
Ministry: ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Asked by: Shri Vivek Thakur

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

## LOK SABHA

## STARRED QUESTION NO. *226

TO BE ANSWERED ON:  07.08.2024

## BRINGING FINANCIAL CYBER CRIME OFFENCES UNDER NON-BAILABLE CATEGORY

## †*226. SHRI VIVEK THAKUR:

Will the Minister of ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY be pleased to state:

- (a) whether the Government is aware that all the section related to financial cyber crime are bailable under the IT Act;
- (b) if so, the details thereof;
- (c) whether the Government proposes to bring the offences under these sections under the non-bailable offence category; and
- (d) if so, the details thereof and if not, the reasons therefor?

## ANSWER

MINISTER OF ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (SHRI ASHWINI VAISHNAW)

(a) to (d):  A statement is laid on the Table of the House.

STATEMENT  REFERRED  TO  IN  THE  REPLY  TO  LOK  SABHA  STARRED QUESTION NO. *226 FOR 07.08.2024 REGARDING BRINGING FINANCIAL CYBER CRIME OFFENCES UNDER NON-BAILABLE CATEGORY

- ...........

(a) to (d): There are 18 sections under the Information Technology Act, 2000 ('IT Act') which cover various forms of cyber offences, out of which 6 offences are non-bailable and 12 offences are bailable. Details of all the offences under the IT Act along with their penal consequences are given in Annexure-I.

As per section 77B of the IT Act, an offence punishable with imprisonment of three years and above shall be cognizable and the offence punishable up to imprisonment of three years shall be bailable. Further, the police are empowered to investigate any offence under the IT Act under section 78.

Ministry  of  Electronics  and  Information  Technology  ('MeitY')  regularly  engages  with  and receives  inputs  from  the  public  and  stakeholders,  including  in  respect  of  changes  required  to existing legislation and the need to introduce fresh legislation.

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Annexure-I Offences under the IT Act along with their penal actions

|   S. No. | Section No.   | Offence                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             | Punishment                                                                                                                            | Bailable/Cognizable      |
|----------|---------------|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|--------------------------|
|        1 | 65            | Tampering with computer source documents.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           | Imprisonment up to 3 years or fine up to 2 lakhs or both                                                                              | Bailable, Cognizable     |
|        2 | 66            | Computer related offences: Punishment for doing dishonestly or fraudulently any act cited in section 43 directly or causing any person to do so, such as unauthorised access to or use of, introducing virus to, damages to, disruption of, denial of access to, assistance to access to, wrongful charges to another person's account by tampering with, destroying, deletion or alteration of any information in, computer resource or stealing/ concealing/ destroying any computer source code. | Imprisonment up to 3 years or fine up to 5 lakh or both.                                                                              | Bailable, Cognizable     |
|        3 | 66B           | Punishment for dishonestly receiving stolen computer resource or communication device                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               | Imprisonment up to 3 years or fine up to 1 lakh or both.                                                                              | Bailable, Cognizable     |
|        4 | 66C           | Punishment for identity theft, i.e., making use of                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  | Imprisonment up to 3 years or fine up to 1 lakh or both.                                                                              | Bailable, Cognizable     |
|        5 | 66D           | Punishment for cheating by personation by using computer resource                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   | Imprisonment up to 3 years and fine up to 1 lakh.                                                                                     | Bailable, Cognizable     |
|        6 | 66E           | Punishment for violation of privacy.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                | Imprisonment up to 3 years or fine up to 2 lakh or both                                                                               | Bailable, Cognizable     |
|        7 | 66F           | Punishment for cyber terrorism                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      | Imprisonment which may extend to life.                                                                                                | Non-Bailable, Cognizable |
|        8 | 67            | Punishment for publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       | 1st Conviction - Imprisonment up to 3 years and fine up to 5 lakh. 2nd Conviction - Imprisonment up to 5 years and fine up to 10 lakh | Bailable, Cognizable     |
|        9 | 67A           | Punishment for publishing or transmitting of material containing sexually explicit act, etc., in electronic form                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    | 1st Conviction - Imprisonment up to 5 years and fine up to 10 lakh.                                                                   | Non-Bailable, Cognizable |

|   S. No. | Section No.                                                                                                    | Offence                                                                                                                                                 | Punishment Bailable/Cognizable       |
|----------|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|--------------------------------------|
|       10 | 67B Punishment for or transmitting of depicting children sexually explicit in electronic form                  | publishing material in act, etc., 1st Conviction Imprisonment up to years and fine up to lakh. 2nd Conviction - Imprisonment up to years and fine up to | - 5 10 7 10 Non-Bailable, Cognizable |
|       11 | 69 Power to issue directions for interception monitoring or decryption of any information through any computer | lakh. or Imprisonment up to years and fine                                                                                                              | 7 Non-Bailable, Cognizable           |
|       12 | assist the agency) 69A Power to issue for blocking for                                                         | directions public Imprisonment up to years and fine                                                                                                     | 7 Non-Bailable, Cognizable           |
|       13 | 69B Power to authorise monitor and collect data or through any                                                 | to traffic information computer Imprisonment up to 1 year or fine up to 1 crore or both                                                                 | Bailable, Cognizable                 |
|       14 | assistance) 70 Critical Infrastructure Protected                                                               | Information (CII)/ system: Imprisonment up to 10 years and fine                                                                                         | Non-Bailable, Cognizable             |
|       15 | system 70B CERT-In: Computer Emergency Response Team                                                           | Indian (CERT- Imprisonment up to 1 year or fine up to 1 crore or both                                                                                   | Bailable, Non-Cognizable             |

| S. No.   | Section No.   | Offence                                                                                                                                                      | Punishment                                              | Bailable/Cognizable      |
|----------|---------------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------|--------------------------|
|          |               | any service provider, intermediaries, datacentres, etc., who fails to provide the information called for or comply with the direction issued by the CERT-In) |                                                         |                          |
| 16       | 71            | Punishment for misrepresentation to Controller of Certifying Authorities (CCA) or Certifying Authorities                                                     | Imprisonment up to 2 years or fine up to 1 lakh or both | Bailable, Non-Cognizable |
| 17       | 73            | Punishment for publishing electronic signature Certificate false in certain particulars                                                                      | Imprisonment up to 2 years or fine up to 1 lakh or both | Bailable, Non-Cognizable |
| 18       | 74            | Punishment for publication of electronic signature certificate for fraudulent purpose                                                                        | Imprisonment up to 2 years or fine up to 1 lakh or both | Bailable, Non-Cognizable |

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