Delhi HC Seeks Police Stand On IT Act not being In Used To Prosecute Cyber Crimes Criminal

The Delhi High Court on Thursday sought Delhi Police’s stand on a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) alleging that the provisions of the Information Technology Act (IT Act) are not being used in cyber-crime cases in Delhi.

A division bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad was hearing the petition filed by Ananya Kumar, a Ph.D. scholar in cyber law.

After reviewing the petition, the Court did not issue a formal notice in the matter, but directed the counsel representing the Delhi Police to file response.

According to the PIL filed through Law Pretation Legal, the fact that Delhi Police is not invoking the provisions of the IT Act in various cyber offences is clear from NCRB data as well as various RTI responses.

“The rate of total Cyber-Crimes per One Lakh of population was 104.6 in Bengaluru, 50.5 in Lucknow and 32 in Ghaziabad but in Delhi it was measly one… from the analyses of this datam it is clearly visible that the respondent no. 2 (Delhi Police) is not invoking the provision of IT Act in the Cyber-Crime reported offences in Delhi,” the petition pointed out.

Kumar stated in his petition that the IT Act also provides for the appointment of an adjudicating officer to adjudicate whether any person has violated the Act, any rule, regulation, direction, or order, and to hold an inquiry.

However, these provisions are not enforced in Delhi because there is no information about them on the State government’s website.

As a result, the PIL requested that the Delhi Police Commissioner issue a standing order/guideline directing the police to invoke provisions of the IT Act first whenever a FIR is filed for cyber-crime.

The petitioner requested that the Central and Delhi governments provide separate infrastructure and online visibility for the adjudicating officer appointed under the IT Act to function properly.

The bench listed the case for further consideration on May 15,2023.