UNIT-3

A) JURISDICTION ISSUE IN CYBER CRIME

Issues of jurisdiction and sovereignty have quickly come to the fore in the era of the Internet. The Internet
does not tend to make geographical and jurisdictional boundaries clear, but Internet users remain in physical
jurisdictions and are subject to laws independent of their presence on the Internet. As such, a single
transaction may involve the laws of atleast three jurisdictions:
(1) The laws of the state/nation in which the user resides.
(2) The laws of the state/nation that apply where the server hosting the transaction is located, and
(3) The laws of the state/nation which apply to the person or business with whom the transaction takes place.

Another major area of interest is net neutrality, which affects the regulation of the infrastructure of the
Internet. Though not obvious to most Internet users, every packet of data sent and received by every user on
the Internet passes through routers and transmission infrastructure owned by a collection of private and
public entities, including telecommunication companies, universities, and governments, suggesting that the
Internet is not very independent. This is turning into one of the most critical aspects of cyber law and has
immediate jurisdictional implications, as laws in force in one jurisdiction have the potential to have dramatic
effects in other jurisdictions when host servers or telecommunications companies are affected.

“Jurisdiction” encompasses several discrete concepts, including jurisdiction to prescribe, jurisdiction to

adjudicate and jurisdiction to enforce. Jurisdiction to prescribe is a sovereign entity’s authority “to make its
law applicable to the activities, relations, or status of persons, or the interests of persons in things by
legislation, by executive act or order, by administrative rule or by determination of a court.”

Many of the jurisdictional and substantive quandaries raised by border-crossing electronic communications
could be resolved by one simple principle: conceiving of Cyberspace as a distinct “place” for purposes of
legal analysis by recognising a legally significant border between Cyberspace and the “real world”.

Treating Cyberspace as a separate “space” to which distinct laws apply should come naturally, because entry
into this world of stored online communications occurs through a screen and (usually) a “password”
boundary. There is a “placeness” to Cyberspace because the messages accessed there are persistent and
accessible to many people. No one accidentally strays across the border into Cyberspace. Crossing
Cyberspace is a meaningful act that would make application of a distinct “law of Cyberspace” fair to those
who pass over the electronic boundary.

Jurisdiction of Civil Courts in India

1. Pecuniary Jurisdiction: It limits the power of the court to hear cases upto a pecuniary limit only. As
Section 6 of the CPC provides “nothing herein contained shall operate to give any Court jurisdiction over
suits the amount or value of the subject matter of which exceeds the pecuniary limits of its ordinary
jurisdiction.
2. Subject matter Jurisdiction: Section 16 to 18 deals with suits relating to immovable property. Section 19
of the CPC states that here a suit is for compensation for wrong done to the person or to movable property, if
the wrong was done within the local limits of the jurisdiction of one Court and the defendant resides, or
carries on business, or personally works for gain, within the local limits of the jurisdiction of another Court,
the suit may be instituted at the option of the plaintiff in either of the said Courts. Section 20 of the Code
states that every suit shall be instituted in a Court within the local limits of whose jurisdiction—
(a) the defendant, or each of the defendants where there are more than one, at the time of the commencement
of the suit, actually and voluntarily resides, or carries on business, or personally works for gain; or
(b) any of the defendants, where there are more than one, at the time of the commencement of the suit,
actually and voluntarily resides, or carries on business, or personally works for gain, provided that in such
case either the leave of the Court is given, or the defendants who do not reside, or carry on business, or
personally works for gain, as aforesaid, acquiesce in such institution; or
(c) The cause of action, wholly or in part, arises.

Under traditional contracts, the governing law is the law of the State where the transaction occurred, unless
agreed otherwise by the parties to the contract, for which the rules of private international law were used in
case of transnational contracts. Nonetheless, moving over to e-contracts, where the parties belong to
different countries, and where there is no specific factor to determine the place of consummation of the
contract, and there is no mention of what the proper law is, in the rules of most of the domestic legislations
this sets the courts in motion to apply the law of the country that has the closest and the most substantial
connection to the contract, with the courts again differing in the factors that they take into consideration in
arriving at the decision.

One of the interesting provisions of Section 75 of IT Act, 2000 which contemplates for offences or
contraventions committed outside India. According to this section, the Act shall apply to an offence or
contravention committed outside India by any person if the act or conduct constituting the offence or
contravention involves a computer, computer system or computer network located in India.

On the same footing Section 179 of the CrPC defines, when an act is an offence by reason of anything which
has been done and of a consequence which has ensued, if the thing has been done in one local area and the
consequence has ensued in another local area.

B) CYBER CRIME UNDER IT ACT: NATIONAL PERSPECTIVE

Due to increase in the number of netizens, misuse of technology in the cyberspace was clutching up which
gave birth to cyber crimes at the domestic and international level as well. It could be hackers vandalizing
your site, viewing confidential information, stealing trade secrets or intellectual property with the use of
internet. It can also include denial of services and virus attacks preventing regular traffic from reaching your
site. Cyber crimes are not limited to outsiders except in case of viruses and with respect of security related
cyber crimes that are usually done by the employees of particular company who can easily access the
password and data storage of the company for their benefits.

Cyber crimes can be classified under different categories which are as follows:

Cyber crimes against persons

There are certain offences which affect the personality of individuals, which can be defined as:
 Harassment via E-mails: It is very common type of harassment through sending letters, attachments of
files & folders, i.e., via e-mails.
 Cyber-Stalking: It means expressed or implied physical threat that creates fear through the use to
computer technology such as internet, e-mail, phones, text messages, webcam, websites or videos.
 Dissemination of Obscene Material: It includes indecent exposure/pornography (child pornography),
hosting of web site containing these prohibited materials.
 Defamation: It is an act of imputing any person with intent to lower down the dignity of the person by
hacking his mail account and sending some mails with using vulgar language to unknown persons mail
account.
 Hacking: It means unauthorised control/access over computer system and act of hacking which
completely destroys the whole data as well as computer programme.
 Cracking: It is amongst the gravest cyber crimes known till date. It is a dreadful feeling to know that a
stranger has broken into your computer systems without your knowledge and consent and has tampered
with precious confidential data and information.
 E-Mail Spoofing: A spoofed e-mail may be said to be one, which misrepresents its origin.
 SMS Spoofing: Spoofing is a blocking through spam which means the unwanted uninvited messages.
Here an offender steals identity of another in the form of mobile phone number and sending SMS via
internet and receiver gets the SMS from the mobile phone number of the victim.
 Carding: It means false ATM cards i.e., Debit and Credit cards used by criminals for their monetary
benefits through withdrawing money from the victim’s bank account malafidely.
 Cheating & Fraud: It means the person who is doing the act of cyber crime i.e., stealing password and
data storage has done it with having guilty mind which leads to fraud and cheating.
 Child Pornography: It involves the use of computer networks to create, distribute or access materials
that sexually exploit underage children.
 Assault by Threat: It refers to threatening a person with fear for their lives or lives of their families
through the use of a computer network.

Crimes against person’s property

There are certain offences which affect a person’s property, which are as follows:
 Intellectual Property Crimes: Intellectual property consists of a bundle of rights. Any lawful act by
which the owner is deprived completely or partially of his rights be said to be software piracy,
infringement of copyright, trademark, patents, designs and service mark violation, theft of computer
source code, etc.
 Cyber Squatting: It means where two persons claim for the same Domain Name either by claiming
that they had registered the name first on by right of using it before the other or using something similar
to that previously.
 Cyber Vandalism: Vandalism means deliberately destroying or damaging property of another. Thus
cyber vandalism means destroying or damaging the data when a network service is stopped or disrupted.
It may include within its purview any kind of physical harm done to the computer of any person.
 Hacking Computer System: Hackers attack those included as famous via, Twitter, blogging platform
by unauthorised access/control over the computer. Due to the hacking activity there will be loss of data
as well as computer.
 Transmitting Virus: Viruses are programs that attach themselves to a computer or a file and then
circulate themselves to other files and to other computers on a network. They usually affect the data on
a computer, either by altering or deleting it.
 Cyber Trespass: It means to access someone’s computer without the right authorisation of the owner
and does not disturb, alter, misuse, or damage data or system by using wireless internet connection.
 Internet Time Thefts: Basically, Internet time theft comes under hacking. It is the use of an
unauthorised person, of the Internet hours paid for by another person. The person who gets access to
someone else’s ISP user ID and password, either by hacking or by gaining access to it by illegal means,
uses it to access the Internet without the other person’s knowledge.

Cyber crimes against Government

There are certain offences done by group of persons intending to threaten the international governments by
using internet facilities. It includes:
 Cyber Terrorism: It is a major burning issue of both the domestic as well as global concern. The
common form of these terrorist attacks on the Internet is by distributed denial of service attacks, hate
websites and hate e-mails, attacks on sensitive computer networks, etc. Cyber terrorism activities
endanger the sovereignty and integrity of the nation.
 Cyber Warfare: It refers to politically motivated hacking to conduct sabotage and espionage. It is a
form of information warfare sometimes seen as analogous to conventional warfare although this analogy
is controversial for both its accuracy and its political motivation.
 Distribution of pirated software: It means distributing pirated software from one computer to another
intending to destroy the data and official records of the government.
 Possession of Unauthorised Information: It is very easy to access any information by the terrorists
with the aid of internet and to possess that information for political, religious, social, ideological
objectives.

Cyber-crimes against Society at large

These offences include:
 Child Pornography: It involves the use of computer networks to create, distribute, or access materials
that sexually exploit underage children. It also includes activities concerning indecent exposure and
obscenity.
 Cyber Trafficking: It may be trafficking in drugs, human beings, arms weapons, etc., which affects
large number of perons.
 Online Gambling: Online fraud and cheating is one of the most lucrative businesses that are growing
today in the cyber space. There are many cases that have come to light which pertain to credit card
crimes, contractual crimes, offering jobs, etc.
 Financial Crimes: This type of offence is common as there is rapid growth in the users of networking
sites and phone networking where culprit will try to attack by sending bogus mails or messages through
internet.
 Forgery: It means to deceive large number of persons by sending threatening mails as online business
transactions are becoming the habitual need of today’s life style.

Cyber crimes always affects the companies of any size because almost all the companies gain an online
presence and take advantage of the rapid gains in the technology but greater attention needs to be given to its
security risks. In the modern cyber world, cyber crimes is the major issue which is affecting individual as
well as society at large too.

Prevention is always better than cure. A citizen should take certain precautions while operating the Internet
and should follow certain preventive measures for cyber crimes which can be defined as:
 Identification of exposures through education will assist responsible companies and firms to meet these
challenges.
 One should avoid disclosing any personal information to strangers via e-mail or while chatting.
 A person should never send his credit card number to any site that is not secured, to guard against frauds.
 Web servers running public sites must be physically separately protected from internal corporate
network.
 It is better to use security programmes by the body corporate to control information on sites.
 Strict statutory laws need to be passed by the Legislatures keeping in mind the interest of citizens.

In Shreya Singhal v. UOI, in the instant case, the validity of Section 66A of the IT Act was challenged
before the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court based its decision on three concepts namely: discussion,
advocacy, and incitement. It observed that mere discussion or even advocacy of a cause, no matter how
unpopular, is at the heart of the freedom of speech and expression. It was found that Section 66A was
capable of restricting all forms of communication and it contained no distinction between mere advocacy or
discussion on a particular cause which is offensive to some and incitement by such words leading to a causal
connection to public disorder, security, health, and so on. In response to the question of whether Section
66A attempts to protect individuals from defamation, the Court said that Section 66A condemns offensive
statements that may be annoying to an individual but not affecting his reputation. However, the Court also
noted that Section 66A of the IT Act is not violative of Article 14 of the Indian Constitution because there
existed an intelligible difference between information communicated through the internet and through other
forms of speech. Also, the Apex Court did not even address the challenge of procedural unreasonableness
because it is unconstitutional on substantive grounds.

In Shamsher Singh Verma v. State of Haryana, the accused preferred an appeal before the Supreme Court
after the High Court rejected the application of the accused to exhibit the Compact Disc filed in defence and
to get it proved from the Forensic Science Laboratory. The Supreme Court held that a Compact Disc is also
a document. It further observed that it is not necessary to obtain admission or denial concerning a document
under Section 294 (1) of CrPC personally from the accused, the complainant, or the witness.

In Shankar v. State Rep, the petitioner approached the Court under Section 482, CrPC to quash the charge
sheet filed against him. The petitioner secured unauthorized access to the protected system of the Legal
Advisor of Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) and was charged under Sections 66, 70,
and 72 of the IT Act. The Court observed that the charge sheet filed against the petitioner cannot be quashed
with respect to the law concerning non-granting of sanction of prosecution under Section 72 of the IT Act.

C) CYBER CRIMES UNCER IT ACT: INTERNATIONAL

PERSPECTIVE
Though cyber-crime encompasses a broad range of illegal activities, it can be generally divided into 5
categories:

1. Intrusive Offence
 Illegal Access: “Hacking” is one of the major forms of offences that refer to unlawful access to a
computer system.
 Data Espionage: Offenders can intercept communications between users (such as e-mails) by targeting
communication infrastructure such as fixed lines or wireless and any Internet service (e.g., e-mail
servers, chat or VoIP communications).
 Data Interference: Offenders can violate the integrity of data and interfere with them by deleting,
suppressing or altering data and restricting access to them.

2. Content-related Offence
 Pornographic Material (Child Pornography): Sex related content was among the first content to be
commercially distributed over the Internet.
 Racism, Hate Speech, Glorification of Violence: Radical groups use mass communication systems
such as the Internet to spread their propaganda.
 Religious Offences: A growing number of websites present material that is in some countries covered
by provisions related to religious offences, e.g., anti-religious written statements.
 Spam: Offenders send out bulk mails by an unidentified source and the mail server often contains
useless advertisements and pictures.

3. Copyright and Trademark related Offence

 Common Copyright Offences: Cyber copyright infringement of software, music or films.
 Trademark Violations: A well-known aspect of global trade. The most serious offences include
phishing and domain or name-related offences, such as cyber squatting.

4. Computer Related Offences

Fraud: Online auction fraud, advance fee fraud, credit card fraud, Internet banking.
Forgery: Manipulation of digital documents.
Identity Theft: It refers to stealing private information including Social Security Numbers (SNN), passport
numbers, Date of birth, addresses, phone numbers, and passwords for non-financial and financial accounts.

5. Combination Offence
 Cyber Terrorism: The main purposes of it are propaganda, information gathering, preparation of real-
world attacks, publication of training material, communication, terrorist financing and attacks against
critical infrastructure.
 Cyber Warfare: It describes the use of ICTs in conducting warfare using the Internet.
 Cyber Laundering: Conducting crime through the use of virtual currencies, online casinos, etc.

There are several emerging international trends of cyber-crime:

 Platform Switch: Cyber-crime is switching its battle ground from Windows-system PCs to other
platforms, including mobile phones, tablet computers, and VoIP. Because a significant threshold in
vulnerabilities has been reached, PC vendors are building better security into their products by
providing faster updates, patches and user alert to potential flaws. The massively successful banking
Trojan, Zeus is already being adapted for the mobile platform. Smashing or SMS phishing, is another
method cyber criminals are using to exploit mobile devices, which users download after falling prey to a
social engineering ploy, is designed to defeat the SMS-based two-factor authentication most banks use
to confirm online fraud transfers by customers. VoIP systems are being used to support dishing
(telephone-based phishing) schemes, which are now growing in popularity.
 Social engineering scams: It refers to a non-technical kind of intrusion, in the form of e-mails or social
networking chats that relies heavily on human interaction and often involves fooling potential victims
into downloading malware or leaking personal data. Social engineering is nevertheless highly effective
for attacking well-protected computer systems with the exploitation of trust. Social networking becomes
 an increasingly important tool for cyber criminals to recruit money moles to assist their money
laundering operations around the globe. Spammers are not only spoofing social networking messages to
persuade targets to click on links in emails - they are taking advantage of users’ trust of their social
networking connections to attract new victims.
 Highly targeted: The newest twist in “hyper targeting” is malware that is meant to disrupt industrial
systems such as the Stuxnet network worm, which exploits zero-day vulnerabilities in Microsoft. The
first known copy of the worm was discovered in a plant in Germany. A subsequent variant led to a
widespread global outbreak.
 Dissemination and use of malware: Malware generally takes the form of a virus, a worm, a Trojan
horse, or spyware. A primary means of malware dissemination is email. It is truly international in scope.

In the UK, way back in 1868, the Court laid down the Hicklin test in Regina vs Hicklin, and held that the
test of obscenity is whether the tendency of the matter charged as obscenity is to deprave and corrupt those
whose minds are open to such immoral influences and into whose hands a publication of this sort may fall.
Hicklin test postulated that a publication has to be judged for obscenity based on isolated passages of a work
considered out of context and judged by their apparent influence on most susceptible readers, such as
children or weak-minded adults.

D) INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION ON CYBER CRIME

Security challenges in cyberspace require a web of responses by public and private sector stakeholders at all
levels down to the individual. International agreements are an important part of the response but with
exceptions they have been difficult to reach.

International efforts to address cyber-crime and e-evidence as a matter of criminal justice have been pursued
since the 1980s, initially by the Council of Europe and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation
Development (OECD), and from the mid-1990s also by the G-8. At the Council of Europe, led this to the
adoption of a soft law recommendation providing guidance on the criminalisation of computer-related
offences (1989) and on law enforcement powers regarding cyber-crime and electronic evidence six years
later (1995). these were precursors to the Budapest Convention which was opened for signature in 2001.

At the UN, it has not been possible to reach a consensus so far as to whether an international treaty on cyber-
crime was necessary and feasible and what it would possibly comprise. The matter of “combating the
criminal misuse of information technologies” was the subject of a resolution at the UN Congress on Crime
Prevention and Criminal Justice in Havana in 1990. it referred to the work of the OECD and the Council of
Europe, but no follow-up was given by the UN. In 2001 and 2002, it was taken up again in UN General
Assembly Resolutions but at that point, the Budapest Convention had been opened for signature.

It would seem that from around 2001, the focus within the UN had shifted from cyber-crime as a matter of
criminal justice to the protection of critical information infrastructure and cyber or information security as a
matter of international security. From 2004, Groups of Government Experts (GGEs) have been meeting to
examine “existing and potential threats from the cyber-sphere and possible cooperative measures to address
them.”

The Budapest Convention provides for (i) the criminalisation of conduct, ranging from illegal access, data
and systems interference to computer-related fraud and child pornography, (ii) procedural law rules to make
the investigation of cyber-crime and the securing of tools to make the investigation of cyber-crime and the
securing of e-evidence in relation to any crime more effective and (iii) international police and judicial
cooperation on cyber-crime and e-evidence.

In 2007 and 2008, India and the Council of Europe cooperated in the forum of India’s Information
Technology Act. These reforms brought the legislation of India broadly in line with the Budapest
Convention.
While membership of the Budapest Convention more than doubled since then, India is yet to join this treaty.
The reasons are not entirely clear.

The Convention is the first international treaty on crimes committed via the Internet and other computer
networks, dealing particularly with infringements of copyright, computer-related fraud, child pornography,
hate crimes and violations of network security. It also contains a series of powers and procedures such as the
search of computer networks and lawful interceptions.

Its main objective, set out in the preamble, is to pursue a common criminal policy aimed at the protection of
society against cyber-crime, especially by adopting appropriate legislation and fostering international
cooperation.

The Convention is the product of four years of work by European and International experts. It has been
supplemented by an Additional Protocol making any publication of racist and xenophobic propaganda via
computer networks a criminal offence, similar to Criminal Libel laws. Currently, cyber terrorism is also
studied in the framework of the Convention.

E) MOBILE PHONE CRIMES

In this day and age when almost everybody owns a mobile device like smart phones, there is also a
continuous rise in mobile crimes.

Types of Mobile Crimes

1. Mobile Hacking: Hacking is an illegal intrusion into another person’s or organisation’s computer
network or systems. Not all of us are aware of this, but hacking can also take place on smart phones.
2. Mobile Cyber Defamation: This crime is very common these days. This involves sending humilities,
derogatory and obscene text messages, emails, or other messages using cell phones and other mobile devices.
Those who engage in these acts aim to defame others and even damage their reputation in the eyes of other
people.
3. Mobile Pornography: The sad truth is that the Internet is now being used to abuse children sexually.
More and more homes have access to Internet, and more and more children are also being allowed to go
online anytime they want. As a result, they become prone to being sexually abused by strangers they meet
online.

Mobile technology over the years have evolved up to a large extent be it on grounds of flexibility or
portability. Security measures too have improved, but not at the desired expected rate to absolutely curb
crimes rates.

Crimes committed through mobile phones

In the modern era, with the emergence of android based, window based course all the crimes that may
committed through traditional computers can also be committed through mobile phones. However, certain
categories of crimes can only be committed through mobile phones which are as follows:
1. Bluejacking and Bluesnarfing: Bluejacking refers to the sending unsolicited messages from a Bluetooth
device to another nearby Bluetooth enabled device through the use of OBEX protocol. Usually, messages,
texts or images may be sent through it. Unscrupulous manufacturers may use this technique for guerrilla
campaigning of their products. However, by and large, this is a harmless practice. This is different from
bluesnarfing where the purpose of the hacker is to steal data and information from the victim’s mobile phone
by using his laptop, desktop, phone, etc., with the help of Bluetooth. While, both bluejacking and
bluesnarfing exploit the victim’s phone’s Bluetooth without their knowledge, bluejacking is usually
harmless whereas bluesnarfing is theft of data from the victim’s device.
2. Blue Bugging: This is a mobile crime committed by using Bluetooth technology which is embedded in
the phones and this technology is used for sharing files, videos, audios, photos, etc. In this, a hacker
completely controls the mobile phone of another, he can access the phone book, send messages, make phone
calls and even listen to the conversation. He can also set up call forwarding option to receive all calls from
the victim’s phone. A person who successfully bluebugs a phone gains complete control over it and can do
anything with the phone. Earlier mobiles that had faulty Bluetooth implementation were vulnerable to
bluebugging. However, with advancement in technology, mobile phones today are not vulnerable to this
crime.
3. Vishing (Voice Phishing): In this type of a crime, a victim usually receives a call from a hacker who
pretends to be from a trusted source, the hacker persuades the victim into divulging important details about
themselves. This type of an identity theft takes place quite easily fraudsters use this technology to trick
people into divulging their personal financial information through one of the most trusted forms of
communication, the telephone. The victim may receive a call from the fraudster posing as a banker or an
agent, asking them to verify certain details. However, the ostensible purpose of such calls is to defraud the
victim by making use of his details.
4. Smishing (SMS Phishing): Smishing involves the sending of a lucrative SMS to a user of a mobile
phone to furnish his confidential or secret information such as credit card details, email Id, passwords, etc.,
which is misused by the hacker to defraud him. At times, it is used for introducing a malware in the mobile
phone.
5. Malware: Malware is a program or software designed to perform malicious activities in the designated
device. It enters and functions in a persons’ mobile phone without his knowledge through a SMS, file
transfer while downloading, etc. Sometimes, the user visits shady websites through which he may end up
downloading malware which can steals sensitive information from the mobile of the victim and carry out
various malicious activities such as deduction of balance, etc.
6. SIM Card Swap: Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) swap fraud occurs when an individual
compromises or steals the SIM card from a cell phone. This card can provide perpetrators with personal
identification, cell phone information (number, provider, etc.), and the ability to contact the carrier to request
a new SIM card, the victim’s card is deactivated. Victims may also notice their phone will no longer
transmit messages or calls. All alerts, payment confirmations, and other various messages are then
transmitted to the fraudster.
7. SMS Spoofing: SMS spoofing means changing the origin of the text message which is sent to the
recipient. SMS spoofing has both legal and illegal uses. The legal use of SMS spoofing may be when a
sender transmits a message from an online computer network for a lower price, and spoofs his own number
in order to properly identify himself. As a result of SMS spoofing, people may spoof their identity to send
messages through the telephone number of another. This may result in another person getting billed for
messages that he did not send. Similarly, false attribution of messages may be exploited for a variety of
reasons such as causing annoyance, defamation, etc.
8. Mobile phones as bomb trigger: Terrorists use the cell phone as a typical remote control to send a signal
via radio airwaves. The signal energizes a relay connected to a blasting cap, which in turn detonates
explosive material. Although remote controlled toys and keyless entry devices set off bombs too, cell phones
remain the most popular.
9. Mobile phone crimes and IMEI number: Every phone has a unique 15 or 17 digit code that identifies
the mobile which is known as IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity) number, it is series of
numbers registered to a single user and can be reported when the phone is stolen. It explains the origin of the
phone, model of the phone and the serial number therefore it is reliable method for recovering the stolen
phones and preventing the phone from illegal use. It also helps in tracing the movement of a mobile user and
it is of great help during the investigation of a crime. In 2009, Indian government issued a notification
banning the import of mobile phones without IMEI numbers in the interest of the national security.

Widened introspection of Section 2(i) of the IT Act, 2000 makes mobile phones fall within the definition of
word “computer” as mobile phones are used for exchanging of information.

Sections 294, 504, 506, 507 and 509 of the IPC, lay down legal provisions for those expressing offensive
feelings by means of mobile phone or computer.

Section 67(a) of the IT Act lays down provisions for punishment against publication or spreading of
materials containing sexually active acts, etc., in electronic form. Similarly, Sections 292, 292(a) of the IPC
also lays down punishment on initial conviction for imprisonment and also fine.
Thus, legal provisions along with established legislations have played a major role towards, curbing
increasing crime rates being committed over mobile phones.