CYBER SEXUAL HARASSMENT LAWS IN INDIA

CYBER SEXUAL HARASSMENT LAWS IN INDIA- Our Legal World

As we all know that cyber crimes are rising at an alarming rate in Indian society where the law doesn’t even recognize cybercrimes properly. In this paper I will briefly mention some cybercrimes and a legal framework for the protection of cyber sexual harassment laws in India. I shall also examine various laws that exist to protect cybercrimes like IT ACT 2000, IPC 1860 and the constitutional liability.

Cyber crimes are basically crimes that happen under the blanket of internet where the perpetrator is protected by the veil of a computer screen and may not disclose their identity. Cyber sexual harassment
involves the actions of a person or persons towards the victim in the cyberspace which causes emotional distress, mental harassment, gender harassment, invasion of privacy etc. The harassers might incite fear of physical harm, give threats, post something defamatory about the victim. Cyber criminals use computer technology to access personal information and use internet for harassment and explanation purposes which includes stalking , blackmailing, threatening via emails , photo morphing , cyber pornography etc.

SOME MAJOR CYBER SEXUAL HARASSMENT CRIMES:-

1. CYBER STALKING :- Cyber stalling is nothing but stalking the victim online for online harassment and online abuse . Women in India are more likely to be targeted for cyber stalking . Here the perpetrator gather the personal information of the victim to threaten or blackmail them .
2. MORPHING :- Morphing is editing the real picture by a fake identity . In this any person can download pictures of the victim and could morph the real picture and upload edited version on different websites
3. CYBER PORNOGRAPHY :- This is another threat to the female population of the country . As there are many websites producing pornographic content which could lead to some devastationg results in the society.

There are several ways to conduct cyber sexual harassment and I’ve mentioned some major crimes above .

LEGAL PROVISIONS UNDER VARIOUS LAWS :-

There are certain legal provisions under various statutes which can aid the victim suffering from cyber violence.

Also Read: Online Test Series [Law]

1. INDIAN PENAL CODE , 1860 Prior to 2013 there was no to deal with cyber crimes but the 2013
   Criminal Amendment Act to IPC by way of section 354A to section 354D changed the whole game for cyber harassment. . This provision actually has its origin from the famous supreme court judgement Vishakha v. State of Rajasthan and has also led to a statutory enactment i.e., Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act 2013

• a. Section 354 A : A man committing any of the following acts – demanding sexual favours, showing pornography against the will , making sexual coloured remarks ,shall be guilty of sexual harassment , may be punished with rigorous imprisonment for a term which may extend upto 3 years , or with fine , or with both.

• Section 354C defines ‘ Voyeurism’ as the act of capturing the image of a women engaging in a private act or disseminating said image without her consent . A person convicted under this section is liable to be punished with fine as well as imprisonment upto 3 years.

Other than the amendments made to the code , there exist certain sections under which cyber crimes may be reported .

1. Section 499 :- DEFAMATION – to defame a person is to harm their reputation intentionally . Defaming intentionally by visual representation is punishable with imprisonment which may extend upto 2 years or with fine or maybe both.
2. Section 503: Threats made to any person with injury to her reputation, either in order to cause alarm to her, or to make her change her course of action regarding anything she would otherwise do/not do is punishable as criminal intimidation. The act of blackmailing a person on the internet, as was done in the case mentioned above can be brought within the ambit of this provision.
3. Section 503: Threats made to any person with injury to her reputation, either in order to cause alarm to her, or to make her change her course of action regarding anything she would otherwise do/not do is punishable as criminal intimidation. The act of blackmailing a person on the internet, as was done in the case mentioned above can be brought within the ambit of this provision.

The IT Act 2000 as amended on 2008 added some provisions to prevent cyber sexual harassment:-

a. Section 66 C :- Under this provision whoever fraudulently or dishonestly make use of the electronic signature , password or any other unique identification feature of any other person , shall be punished with imprisonment which may extend to 3 years and shall also be liable to fine upto 1 lakh .

b. Section 66E :- of the IT Act deals with violation of privacy of a person. Capturing or publishing images of private area of any person without their consent is punishable with imprisonment upto 3 years and / or fine.

c. Section 67 :- Publication, transmission and causing of transmission of obscene content is punishable under this act .

d. Section 67 A :- makes the publication , transmission of sexually explicit material punishable under this act .

e. Section 67 B :- makes publication /transmission of sexually explicit content depicting children punishable.

INDECENT REPRESENTATION OF WOMEN [ PROHIBTION ] BILL , 2012 :-

This act regulates and prohibits the indecent representation of women through the media of ads , publications etc . This bill broadens the scope of law to cover the audio – visual media and content in electronic form , and distribution of material which includes distribution of material on internet also and the portrayal of women on the web

Reference:

• Vishakha v State of Rajasthan AIR 1997 SC 3011
• Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act 2013 (Act 14 of 2013)

Written by Tanya Thakur