Porngate: Why K'taka mins will escape cyber law

Bangalore, Feb 9: With the sleaze row leaving the ruling BJP government red faced, the ministers may escape from the clutches of law as watching porn is not a punishable act under the Indian IT Act, but circulating, publishing the same is viewed as a culpable act.

The cyber police may therefore not be able to book Laxman Savadi and CC Patil, the two ministers accused of watching the sleazy video during the ongoing assembly session, but minister Krishna Palemar could be in trouble as he has been accused of forwarding the porn video to Savadi and the act of forwarding/transmitting under the cyber law is considered as a punishable act as reported by the Times of India.

Palemar could be held guilty under the Section 67 and 67(a) of the Indian IT Act which could lead him to three years imprisonment and up to Rs 5 lakh penalty.

"The Act has too many loopholes now and it requires a thorough amendment. With accessibility on the rise, the number of such incidents will only increase,'' said Pavan Duggal, Supreme Court lawyer and cyber expert.

"This is the first time in the country any politician has been caught red-handed viewing porn, though many such cases across the country go unreported. The Karnataka porn episode calls for the need of specific provisions in the IT Act, to ensure stringent punitive actions against law breakers in the public space.

"Actually, the Act should have well-articulated provisions for people who access porn content at work places, be it in the private or public domains," he said.

The 2008 amendment cites punishment to transmitting and publishing pornographic content, from three to five years also making it a bailable and non-bailable offence.

"This has to be corrected in the new amendment to make the act more stronger," added Duggal.

According to Rohit Srivastwa, founder, hacker's club ClubHack, employees are prohibited from viewing objectionable content at workplace.

OneIndia News