Advocate (Dr.) Prashant Mali's Blog

Social media, OTT Platforms, online news websites regulation in india (Information Technology Rules, 2021 ) This are the Rules framed pursuant to the powers conferred by Section 79(2)(c) and Section 69A(2) of the Information Technology Act, 2000 provides for classification of films and other entertainment programmes, including web series, bring digital news platforms within the ambit of regulations covering print and electronic media and attempts to rein in social media intermediaries.  Guidelines for intermediary and social media intermediary  The Rules define 'significant social media intermediary' as social media with users above the threshold notified by the Central government.  The Rules mandate that social media intermediary should 'enable the identification of the first originator of the information on its computer, as "may be required by a judicial or or an order passed by the Competent authority" and such an order shall only be passed for  the purposes of...

Admission & Confession in Cyber Crime (IT Act,2000) Cases Digital evidence: reliability When one examines the issue of reliability of digital evidence there arises a number of questions. Should forensic software (digital evidence) be entitled to a judicial presumption of reliability? When, if ever, should courts compel non-party forensic software vendors to reveal proprietary source code to party experts in order to assure a fairer trial? And what does reliability mean in the context of digital evidence anyway?  The term ‘Admission’ means stating something or admitting something other than guilt. So now the question is does confession also meant the same. The answer is no, as there is a very thin life difference between confession and admission. The word ‘confession’ means acknowledgement of guilt made by a person after an offence has been committed. ADMISSION (Sec. 17-23, 31) According to sec. 17 of the Indian Evidence Act, “An admission is a statement, oral or documentary or ...

W hatsapp is an instant text messaging application, as of October 2020 it is used by more than 2 billion users in more than 180 countries. Its use has become so prevalent that it has become a primary mode of communication for many individuals. Many parties now use Whatsapp even for business purposes, such as communicating with clients, sending documents or even negotiating contracts. As a cyber lawyer, one of the questions I get asked frequently is whether Whatsapp messages can be adduced as evidence in court.  Some clients think that because of its “informal” nature, Whatsapp messages would not be admissible as evidence. However, this assumption is inaccurate since there have been many instances where the Indian Courts have allowed Whatsapp messages to be adduced as evidence.   In January 2021, the Punjab and Haryana High Court had observed that WhatsApp messages will have no evidentiary value unless they are certified as per Section 65B of  the Indian Evidence Act (Rake...

The National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC) has passed an important ruling in which it states that if hackers fraudulently withdraw money from a person’s bank account, the bank, would be responsible for the loss, not the customer. The Commission blamed the bank for a mistake within their system while passing the judgment in one of the case in which the victim alleged that the money was withdrawn from her account by a hacker. The victim believed that the hacking was done due to a mistake in the bank’s electronic banking system. It was observed by the commission that the bank could not present any such evidence, which showed that the credit card of the victim was stolen after which the commission ordered the bank to compensate the victim. In one of the other cases, Jesna Jose, the complainant who lives abroad, will also receive around Rs 80,000 in interest and compensation. Jose had submitted the complaint before the district consumer forum in 2009. She said she procured...

Insta Loan fraud & mobile apps These Insta Loan applications are developed in such a way that on installing these apps they get access to the contacts, mobile information and other data on the device. These applications collect the Id proofs, PAN card, KYC documents, and bank account details of the customers. They check the genuineness of the documents and disburse small amounts in the form of a loan to their bank accounts by debiting the processing charges and GST ie, 25-30 per cent in advance. Loans are given for either seven days or 15 days. After the due date, the company categorises the customers into various buckets - S-0, S-1, S-2, S-3, M2, M3, X etc. The customers in a lower bucket get a decent treatment but as the bucket category goes up the treatment gets harsher. The call centres of the company abuse the customers in filthy language and threaten them with dire consequences. They even go to the extent of accessing the contacts of the customers from their phone and start a...

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the combination of algorithms designed with the purpose of creating devices that present capabilities similar to those of the human being. A type of technology that is beginning to be present in everyday life in the most common applications, even for home use such as Siri and Alexa cell phone assistants, or facial recognition applications such as those used by the Argentine government in systems such as ANSES (National Administration of Social Security “Administración Nacional de la Seguridad Social”) and the AFIP (Federal Administration of Public Revenue “Administración Federal de Ingresos Públicos”). Authors Stuart Russell and Peter Norvig, two academic classics of Computer Science, defined the “types” of artificial intelligence according to their application in the following categories: – Systems that “think” like humans (e.g., artificial neural networks). – Systems that act like humans (e.g., robots). – Systems that learn and generate new knowledge (...

FIR - What is?  The first information report is a report giving information of the commission of a cognizable crime,  which may be made by the complainant (the term “Complainant” has been used herein the popular  sense) or by any other person knowing about the commission of such an offence. It is intended to set  the criminal law in motion.  A First Information Report is the most important document and forms the basis of the case for  prosecution. The word „First Information Report‟ has not been defined in the CrPC. By practice it has  come to mean the information disclosing commission of a cognizable offence and recorded under Sec.  154 CrPC.   The principal object of FIR is only to make a complaint to the police officer to set the criminal law in  motion while the secondary objective is to obtain early information of an alleged criminal activity and  to record the circumstances before there is time for such circumstances to b...