Clarification on Section 67 and 67A of Information Technology Act, 2000 (under Information Technology Act, 2000)
Page Contents
Whoever,
Publishes or transmits or causes to be published in the electronic form,
Any material which is lascivious or appeals to the prurient interest or
If its effect is such as to tend to deprave and corrupt persons who are likely, having regard to all relevant circumstances, to read, see or hear the matter contained or embodied in it,
shall be punished on first conviction with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to three years and with fine which may extend to five lakh rupees and in the event of a second or subsequent conviction with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to five years and also with fine which may extend to Rs 10 lakh.
Brief Explanation of Each Word
Whoever,
Publishes or transmits or causes to be published or transmitted in the electronic form, any material which contains sexually explicit act or conduct,
shall be punished on first conviction with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to five years and with fine which may extend to Rs 10 lakhs and in the event of second or subsequent conviction with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to seven years and also with fine which may extend to Rs 10 lakhs.
Section 67 and Section 67A does not extend to any book, pamphlet, paper, writing, drawing, painting, representation or figure in electronic form-
Case (1):
The Oshiwara police registered an FIR against Ajay Hatewar for tweeting defamatory statements against chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and posting a picture of the CM enjoying a vacation with his family in 2011-2012.
He has been booked for defamation and also under Section 67 (A) of the IT Act.
Case (2):
A case is tied in with posting obscene, defamatory and irritating message about a divorced lady in the Yahoo message group. Emails were sent to the divorced lady (Victim) for data by the accused through a false email account opened by him for the sake of harassing the victim. These postings brought about irritating telephone calls to the woman.
In light of the woman’s grumbling, the police arrested the accused. Investigation uncovered that he was a known family companion of the victim and was keen on wedding her. She was hitched to someone else, yet that marriage finished in separate and the accused began to call her again by sending such emails. On her hesitance to wed him he began hassling her through web.
The accused was discovered liable for offences under section 469, 509 Indian Penal code, 1860 and Section 67 of Information Technology, Act 2000.
Deepak Joshi | CA Final Student | E-mail: deepakjoshi726@hotmail.com
(This article is compiled by me and any correction and feedback would be greatly appreciated)
Normally IT act is not known to many FB users.so do’s n don’t are bound to know by user’s.this clearification is helpful.tku. Moon Choudhury from Guwahati
Thank you for your valuable feedback.
In addition to above article, i would like to add few more clarifications on Section 67A of Information Technology Act, 2000 about Transmitting or publishing sexually explicit acts in electronic form:
Section 67A provides punishment for publishing or transmitting obscene digital content containing sexual explicit acts. This could be any adult content videos or MMS or short clips or images including ‘selfies’ (self clicked images) . As per 67A of I.T. Act punishment on first conviction is imprisonment of a term which may extend to five years and fine which may extend upto Rs.10.00 Lakhs.