 bill no 27 of 2014 the information technology (amendment) bill, 2014 byshri baijayant panda, mpa bill further to amend the information technology act, 2000be it enacted by parliament in the sixty-fifth  year of the republic of  india  as follows:—1 (1) this act may be called the information technology  (amendment) act, 2014short title and commencement(2) it shall come into force on such date as the central government may, by notificationin the official gazette, appointamendment of section 221 of 2000 52 in section 2 of the information technology act, 2000 (hereinafter referred to as theprincipal act)—(i) clause (ha) shall be re-numbered as clause (hb) and before clause (hb) as so re-numbered, the following clause shall be inserted, namely:—'(ha) "commercial electronic message" means an electronic message the primary purpose of which is to market or promote a product or a service or a business or an investment opportunity;'; (ii) after clause (s), the following clause shall be inserted, namely:—5'(sa) "electronic message" means a message or an information created, transmitted or received on a computer, computer system, computer resource or communication device including attachments in text, images, audio, video or any other electronic record, which may be transmitted with the message;'; and (iii) after clause (zg), the following clause shall be inserted, namely:—10'(zga) "unsolicited commercial electronic message" means a commercial electronic message that is sent to the addressee or the recipient without his/her consent;'3 for section 66a of the principal act, the following section shall be substituted, namely:—substitution of new section for section 66a15"66a any person who sends, by means of a computer resource or a communication device,—(a) any unsolicited commercial electronic message;punishment for sending unsolicited commercial electronic messages, etc(b) any commercial electronic message in which the identity of the originator or the person on whose behalf the message is sent has been disguised or concealed; or20(c) any commercial electronic message which cannot be unsubscribed or replied to by the addressee or the recipient due to the absence of a valid electronic address or otherwise, shall be punished with fine which may extend to rupees one crore" statement of objects and reasonsthere has been phenomenal growth in the use of  internet for exchange of information, ideas and opinions since easy accessibility to internet has empowered the citizens with information and knowledge, it is extremely important that the rights of our citizens to express themselves freely over the internet be zealously protected however, law enforcing agencies have, on several occasions, misused the law to subvert these rightspart of the problem is the law itself, which has been drafted in a broad manner that leaves wide scope for misinterpretation and abuse section 66a of the information technology act, 2000, in particular, has come under severe criticism from various quarters clause (a) of the section 66a uses expressions such as 'grossly offensive' and 'menacing', which are not only vague but also highly subjective by individual standards clause (b) prescribes penalties for offences such as 'annoyance', 'criminal intimidation', 'insult' and promoting 'hatred' or 'ill-will' between groups prescribing the same punishment for 'annoyance' as well as 'criminal intimidation' by bundling disparate terms within the same clause is bound to lead to confusion and misuse moreover, most of these offences are already covered under various sections of the indian penal code, 1860 as a result, offenders often get booked under both the statutes for the same offence clause (c) of that section is meant to be an anti-spam provision but does not do justice to the requirement of either the users or the industrywhat is more, in some cases, penalties for the same offences are higher in the information technology act as compared to those in the indian penal code thus, if an offence is committed through an electronic medium such as the internet, it would attract a higher penalty than otherwise for instance, threatening someone with injury to their reputation through email attracts a penalty of three years' imprisonment under the information technology act, while the same offence when committed verbally attracts a penalty of two years' imprisonment under the indian penal code (sections 503 and 506) this is inconsistent and unjustifiedthe significance of this change goes beyond the increase in penalty under the code of criminal procedure, 1973, offences punishable with a jail term of three years or more are 'cognizable' where a police officer can arrest the offender without a warrant this leaves more discretion to the police officer and makes the section liable to be misusedour constitution accords high importance and sanctity to the freedom of speech and expression article 19(1) of the constitution provides our people the freedom to freely express their opinion while article 19(2) empowers the legislatures to impose reasonable restrictions on this freedom reasonable restrictions can only be imposed in the interest of the sovereignty and integrity of india, the security of the state, friendly relations with foreign states, public order, decency or morality, or in relation to contempt of court, defamation or incitement to an offence no other grounds have been providedour supreme court has upheld that restrictions on freedom of speech and expression should be narrowly and specifically defined it is pertinent to note that some other democracies use the principle of incitement to violence with clear and present danger as the defining guideline for such restrictionsgiven that section 66a of the information technology act is broadly defined and open to varied interpretation by the enforcers, it ceases to be 'reasonable' the present law needs to be amended in order to narrowly delineate the contours of situations under which free speech on the internet may be restricted any attempt to provide our people an atmosphere conducive to healthy debate and deliberation, will have to begin with an amendment of this act, which strikes at the very root of our democratic valuestherefore, clauses (a) and (b) of section 66a must be omitted and clause (c) must be reworded to provide for a potent anti-spam provision several countries, such as usa, uk, canada and singapore already have a comprehensive anti-spam legislation in place in india, despite demands from various quarters, the information technology act has so far not adequately addressed the issue of spamhence this billnew delhi;baijayant pandajune 11, 2014 annexure the information technology act, 2000 (21 of 2000)    2  (1) in this act, unless the context otherwise requires,—definitions(a)     (b)     (c)     (d)     (e)     (f)     (g)     (h)     (ha) "communication device" means cell phones, personal digital assistance or combination of both or any other device used to communicate, send or transmit any text, video, audio or image;     (s) "electronic gazette" means the official gazette published in the electronic form;     (zg) "subscriber" means a person in whose name the digital signature certificate is issue;     66a any person who sends, by means of a computer resource or a communication device,—(a) any information that is grossly offensive or has menacing character; or punishment for sending offensive messages through communication service, etc(b) any information which he knows to be false, but for the purpose of causing annoyance, inconvenience, danger, obstruction, insult, injury, criminal intimidation, enmity, hatred or ill-will, persistently by making use of such computer resource or a communication device; or(c) any electronic mail or electronic mail message for the purpose of causing annoyance or inconvenience or to deceive or to mislead the addressee or recipient about the origin of such messages, shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years and with fine explanation—for the purposes of this section, terms "electronic mail" and "electronic mail message" means a message or information created or transmitted or received on a computer, computer-system, computer resource or communication device including attachments in text, image, audio, video and any other electronic record, which may be transmitted with the message——————a billfurther to amend the information technology act, 2000————(shri baijayant panda, mp)gmgipmrnd—732ls(s-3)—27-06-2014