HC issues notice to Centre, Delhi govt on PIL against surging cyber crimes

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Tuesday issued notice on a PIL against rise in cyber crimes, including the forging of court orders, fake FIRs, and arrest warrants.

A division bench of Acting Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora sought response of Centre, Delhi government, Delhi Police, and Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

Now, the matter is likely to come up for hearing next on March of 19.

Last time, the court had stressed the need for a reformed policing system to meet new challenges.

The same bench had noted the importance of adopting a straightforward complaint filing system for such cases.

The petitioners had argued that the websites of the Central and State Cyber Cells lacked activity and failed to raise awareness about the latest cyber crimes.

The court had noted the seriousness of the issue but said that the prayers in the petition differed from the oral submissions.

Referring to the proposed changes as "unworkable prayers," the court had directed the petitioners' counsel to amend the petition for further consideration on January 30 (Tuesday).

"Cyber crime is a genuine problem today. Everyone is getting troubled. This is something unique happening now. We don’t know what the authorities can do about this. Only awareness can work. Awareness is needed," it had said.

Addressing the Delhi Police's counsel, Santosh Kumar Tripathi, the court had stressed the urgency of creating a simple digital facility for people to report cyber crime complaints via email. It had pointed out the need for swift action, especially in cases involving monetary transactions that could cross international boundaries.

Tripathi had submitted that a centralised number 1089 is already there and people can lodge complaints on it.

The bench had, however, said that the numbers are generally not functional and digital facilities should be made available.

"Suppose someone succeeds in transmitting money. Money has to be blocked immediately. It cannot be done till you have a digital system in place. Otherwise, money will cross the boundaries of this country. You won’t be able to reach it," the court had said.

"Even if the money is given through banks, it will go out of the country in 15 minutes. I think they (petitioners) are giving good suggestions. One is to create awareness and the other is to have a (simple) mechanism to lodge complaints," the court had said.

It had called for the creation of special dedicated units to address the growing challenges posed by cyber crimes and stressed the importance of police officers being well-versed in computer technologies.

Furthermore, the court had asked the Central government's counsel to explore the possibility of establishing a unified system to verify the genuineness of the orders passed by the authorities.

The Public Interest Litigation (PIL) has been filed to bring to the notice of the court the issue of the rapidly multiplying and mutating menace of cyber crime which has now taken a perilous turn and emerged as a new kind of skullduggery, that is a ‘digital arrest’ scam, which poses a greater threat.