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Observing that cybercrime is a genuine problem, the Delhi High Court Tuesday said that the “whole policing system has to be reformed” to gear up to this “new challenge” while asking the authorities to see if a simpler mechanism for making complaints and increasing awareness can be adopted.
A division bench of Acting Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora were hearing a public interest litigation plea on the issue of increasing cyber crimes and forging of court orders, including those of the Supreme Court, as well as FIRs and arrest warrants to extort ‘settlement money’ from innocent unsuspecting citizens.
The petitioners, advocates Akshya and Urvashi Bhatia, said that the authorities in whose names the scams are being run should run an “awareness campaign”. They further said the procedure of reporting such incidents should be simpler, adding that a person can then report the number which can be “immediately blocked so that other citizens can be protected”. They also argued that there should be coordination with authorities to stop the payment in its trail which is not there at the moment.
The petitioners also claimed that websites of central as well as state cyber cells are inactive and do not post anything to increase awareness amongst people on the latest cyber crimes happening in the country.
Taking note of these submissions, the bench orally observed, “This is something unique which is happening… Suppose someone has transmitted money, (it) has to be blocked immediately. It can’t be done till you have a digital system in place. It has to be blocked then and there. Otherwise, the money will cross the boundary of the country. Even if money is given through banks, it is impossible to find out. Money will just fly out of the country in 15 minutes and you will not even get to know.”
The bench further orally said authorities should have a setup where anyone can send a WhatsApp message or an email to them and on that a complaint can get registered.
Noting that the petitioners had raised an important issue, the bench further orally said, “Today what you are seeing and… hearing is not to be believed and that is something which we are not accustomed to. Today to be told that what we are seeing and hearing is not correct is something that shocks… the person who is calling up is not discriminating, he doesn’t know who is a lawyer who is a judge who is an accused who is a victim. He doesn’t care about it; he just makes indiscriminate calls.”
The HC, however, said the prayers mentioned in the plea were different from prayers made during the oral submissions and asked the petitioners to amend their plea.
It thereafter asked the Delhi government counsel to take instructions on having a simple digital facility for people to lodge cyber crime complaints via email.
It also asked the central government counsel to take instructions on having a system or methodology of cross-checking whether summons issued by agencies are actually issued by them or not.
“There are some 4-5 central agencies mentioned here. They must have a system of cross-checking; a unified information system to check whether summons are actually issued by them or not. Whether you are actually investigating a person or not,” the bench said.
The matter is now listed on January 30.
© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
First uploaded on: 16-01-2024 at 20:27 IST
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