New Delhi: All India Trinamool Congress (TMC) Rajya Sabha MP Derek O’Brien on Friday introduced a private member’s bill to amend the Information Technology Act to criminalise violent behaviour and abusive acts against women online based on their religion, caste or sexuality.
In the bill, O’Brien has proposed making online threats against women “cognizable and non-bailable offences”, which at the minimum, attract a jail time of up to three years and/or a fine of up to ₹50,000.
“[This bill] amends the Information Technology Act to penalise threats of physical, sexual and emotional violence based on religion, caste or sexuality against women online,” O’Brien said while introducing the bill.
The bill seeks to empower victims of online threats to approach the jurisdictional magistrate to get an injunction within a day against the accused or any other person, company, organisation, or entity to get the offensive content deleted and to prevent its storage, retransmission and repetition.
The bill proposes to criminalise acts that are committed against any woman “with the intention to intimidate or discredit her or force her to express a certain view, opinion or observation, or to force her to state any view, opinion or observation or to force her to refrain from expressing a certain view, opinion or observation”.
These include threats of physical violence, sexual assault, doxxing; spreading false information, false prosecution, threats to question a person’s citizenship or imputation of disloyalty to India, and abuse based on religion, caste or sexuality.
{{/usCountry}}These include threats of physical violence, sexual assault, doxxing; spreading false information, false prosecution, threats to question a person’s citizenship or imputation of disloyalty to India, and abuse based on religion, caste or sexuality.
{{/usCountry}}According to the bill, false information includes any information “either verifiably false, defamatory or of such a nature as to not be verifiable”.
Physical violence includes “assault, simple hurt, grievous hurt, kidnapping, abduction, attempt to murder and murder”.
Sexual assault means “rape, molestation or any act which violates the bodily integrity of a woman”. Threat refers to “any expression through word, sound, gesture or any audio-visual communication whatsoever of an intention to cause harm, alarm, intimidation or harassment or for incitement of harm, alarm, intimidation or harassment by any person”.
The first offence could attract imprisonment of up to three years and/or a fine of up to ₹50,000. For the second offence, it can increase to jail time of up to seven years and/or a fine of up to ₹4 lakh. For every subsequent offence, the bill proposes imprisonment of up to ten years and a fine of up to ₹10 lakh. The bill wants the fine to be paid to the victim as compensation.