The Author
We are witnessing a steep rise in the offences related to cyber crime causing irreparable damage to a person’s reputation by putting an obscene video on the internet.
Today several such cases where prominent people photographs are merged in form of a collage along with some female having derogatory words on the photograph and our placed on public internet sites such as facebook, whats app etc. with a malafide intention to exploit them for their selfish motive. Such scenes have got bad name for those who are made a target within the society, in such internet hacking cases.
It is equally important for the relevant authorities to initiate strong amendments to the Indecent Representation of Women prohibition Act (IRWA 1986) enabling to strengthen the laws in the Act concerning the indecent projection of women, which could mean atleast a jail for a period of three years for sending a pornographic multimedia SMS or placing photograph on public internet sites such as facebook, whats app etc. as witnessed the law at present is very lenient being bailable offence. Hence our law making agencies need to further enact the porn messages cases to be amended into stringent punishment for the culprits involved in such filthy and inhuman acts.
Today the protection of women needs to be the most important objective by our Government as it has already become a cause of worry regarding the ongoing derogatory messages trend with our society by certain unscrupulous elements who commit this ruthless act, as witnessed in the passed with the permissive attitude to this act towards “porn messages” etc. it had made difficult as the offenders this way have been frequently dismissed as sections 500 or 501 I P C are bailable offences hence without much harm they escape the scene. Today making laws with stringent punishment and culprit to be sentenced jail in event of being caught placing photograph on public internet sites such as facebook, whats app etc. porn messages will send a strong message for such offenders and atleast they will think twice before committing such an offence related to pornographic multimedia message.
Even the society needs to boycott such unscrupulous elements who indulge in such ruthless crime. Rather the authorities also need to constitute a separate task force to check the increasing cases of pornographic within our country ensuring that a woman can feel safe and not lose her image in society.
As the term ‘cyber crime’ defines various forms of offenses, including credit card fraud, electronic commerce transactions, computer hacking, pornography, cyber stalking, and software piracy. It is the need of the hour for the authorities concerned to update the existing cyber crime laws enabling stringent punishments to cyber criminals who temper with computer, hack computer systems, and publish information, which is obscene, in electronic form.
(The Author is a Practicing Criminal Lawyer & Former Additional Advocate General, Punjab.)