NEW DELHI: With rampant rise in cyber crimes across the country, India’s only Cyber Appellate Tribunal (CAT), which has remained headless for more than seven years in a row, is resulting in increasing pendency of cases related to cybercrimes.
The callousness of the government is delaying the process of appointment of Chairman in CAT is forcing people to approach other high courts which are already reining under huge pendency.
But now, the Ministry of Information Technology is all set to amend section 48(1) of the IT Act 2000, by which appeals of the cyber tribunal can be challenged directly before the Supreme Court. This means that cases won’t be piled up before the high court first and final decisions would be taken at the earliest.
Ministry is all set to introduce the bill with amendments in the upcoming winter session of the Parliament, which was scheduled to begin from December 11, this year.
With the last amendment to the IT Act made in 2017 through the Finance Bill, the Cyber Appellate Tribunal has been merged with the Telecom Disputes Settlements and Appellate Tribunal. The step has also been seen as a welcome move as
The tribunal was created to adjudicate cyber crimes and disputes such as hacking, sending of offensive or false messages, receiving stolen computer resource and identity theft, among others.