Section No
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IX. PENALTIES AND ADJUDICATION |
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IX |
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Penalty for damage to computer, computer system, etc |
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If any person without permission of the owner or any other person who
is incharge of a computer, computer system or computer network -
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(a) |
accesses or secures access to such computer, computer system or computer
network. |
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(b) |
downloads, copies or extracts any data, computer data base or information
from such computer, computer system or computer network including information
or data held or stored in any removable storage medium; |
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(c) |
introduces or causes to be introduced any computer contaminant
or computer virus into any computer, computer system or computer
network; |
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(d) |
damages or causes to be damaged any computer, computer system or computer
network, data, computer data base or any other programmes residing in such
computer, computer system or computer network; |
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(e) |
disrupts or causes disruption of any computer, computer system or computer
network; |
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(f) |
denies or causes the denial of access to any person authorised to access
any computer, computer system or computer network by any means; |
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(g) |
provides any assistance to any person to facilitate access to a computer,
computer system or computer network in contravention of the provisions
of this Act, rules or regulations made thereunder, |
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(h) |
charges the services availed of by a person to the account of another
person by tampering with or manipulating any computer, computer system,
or computer network,
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he shall be liable to pay damages by way
of compensation not exceeding one crore rupees to the person so affected. |
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Explanation - for the purposes of this section -
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(i) |
"Computer Contaminant" means any set of computer instructions that
are designed - |
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(a) |
to modify, destroy, record, transmit data or programme residing within
a computer, computer system or computer network; or |
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(b) |
by any means to usurp the normal operation of the computer, computer
system, or computer network; |
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(ii) |
"Computer Database" means a representation of information, knowledge,
facts, concepts or instructions in text, image, audio, video that are being
prepared or have been prepared in a formalised manner or have been produced
by a computer, computer system or computer network and are
intended for use in a computer, computer system or computer
network; |
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(iii) |
"Computer Virus" means any computer instruction, information, data
or programme that destroys, damages, degrades or adversely
affects the performance of a computer resource or attaches itself
to another computer resource and operates when a programme,
data or instruction is executed or some other event takes place
in that computer resource; |
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(iv) |
"Damage" means to destroy, alter, delete, add, modify or re-arrange
any computer resource by any means. |
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Penalty for failure to furnish information, return, etc |
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If any person who is required under this Act or any rules or regulations
made thereunder to -
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(a) |
furnish any document, return or report to the Controller or the Certifying
Authority, fails to furnish the same, he shall be liable to a penalty not
exceeding one lakh and fifty thousand rupees for each such failure; |
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(b) |
file any return or furnish any information, books or other documents
within the time specified therefor in the regulations, fails to file return
or furnish the same within the time specified therefore in the regulations,
he shall be liable to a penalty not exceeding five thousand rupees
for every day during which such failure continues: |
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(c) |
maintain books of account or records, fails to maintain the same, he
shall be liable to a penalty not exceeding ten thousand rupees for
every day during which the failure continues. |
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Residuary Penalty |
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Whoever contravenes any rules or regulations made under this Act, for
the contravention of which no penalty has been separately provided, shall
be liable to pay a compensation not exceeding twenty-five thousand rupees
to the person affected by such contravention or a penalty not exceeding
twenty-five thousand rupees.
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Power to Adjudicate |
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(1) |
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For the purpose of adjudging under this Chapter whether any person
has committed a contravention of any of the provisions of this Act or of
any rule, regulation, direction or order made thereunder, the Central Government
shall, subject to the provisions of sub-section(3), appoint any officer
not below the rank of a Director to the Government of India or an equivalent
officer of a State Government to be an adjudicating officer for holding
an inquiry in the manner prescribed by the Central Government. |
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(2) |
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The adjudicating officer shall, after giving the person referred to
in sub-section (1) a reasonable opportunity for making representation in
the matter and if, on such inquiry, he is satisfied that the person has
committed the contravention, he may impose such penalty as he thinks fit
in accordance with the provisions of that section. |
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(3) |
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No person shall be appointed as an adjudicating officer unless he possesses
such experience in the field of Information Technology and Legal or Judicial
experience as may be prescribed by the Central Government. |
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(4) |
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Where more than one adjudicating officers are appointed, the Central
Government shall specify by order the matters and places with respect to
which such officers shall exercise their jurisdiction. |
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(5) |
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Every adjudicating officer shall have the powers of a civil court which
are conferred on the Cyber Appellate Tribunal under sub-section (2) of
section 58, and -
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(a) |
all proceedings before it shall be deemed to be judicial proceedings
within the meaning of sections 193 and 228 of the Indian Penal Code; |
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shall be deemed to be a civil court for the purposes of sections 345
and 346 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973. |
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Factors to be taken into account by the adjudicating officer |
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While adjudging the quantum of compensation under this Chapter the
adjudicating officer shall have due regard to the following factors, namely
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the amount of gain of unfair advantage, wherever quantifiable, made
as a result of the default; |
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(b) |
the amount of loss caused to any person as a result of the default; |
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(c) |
the repetitive nature of the default |
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