HYDERABAD: By the end of 2019 or the beginning of 2020, the Central government is going to come up with a separate law to deal exclusively with cybercrime, an advocate involved in its drafting said here on Wednesday.
Speaking on the sidelines of Global Cyber Security Conference, Pankaj Bafna, a cyber crime lawyer from Mumbai said that Union Ministry of Home Affairs is coming up with an amendment to the IT Act and is also formulating a new cybercrime law after the Maharashtra government requested for the same.
“While civil disputes will be taken up in the Information Technology Act, the criminal part will put into the proposed cyber crime act. All cyber crimes will be registered under the new act,” he said. Bafna also participated in a panel ‘Cyber compliance or cyber legal compliance’ at the event.
In the proposed cybercrime law, the punishment would be more rigorous and offences would be non-bailable — unlike in the case of the IT Act. Bafna said that such a law was the need of the hour as cybercrimes were eating away at the economy, with financial frauds running into hundreds of crores.
He also informed that Centre was trying to get into a cybersecurity agreement with other countries so that cross-border offences could be investigated properly. The Centre, with the proposed law, will also bestow upon the police more power to investigate such crimes. “In the bill, we are addressing jurisdiction issues and rank-related matters. We are planning to take it down to the level of police sub-inspector — who will be a young person and would understand cybercrime much better than a 40-year-old police officer,” he added.
‘Current law not enough’
The existing IT Act is not enough to prosecute offenders, said Bafna. He recalled how many offenders take advantage of the lax law and often repeat their offences
