Kapil Sibal rules out changes in cyber law

Gurgaon, Nov 8: Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal on Thursday ruled out bringing changes in cyber law in the wake of the controversy over the arrest of a man for allegedly targeting Finance Minister P Chidambaram's son on Twitter, saying the policeman in question was "ignorant".

Union Minister of Communications and Information Technology Kapil Sibal at the World Economic Forum 2012 in Gurgaon on Thursday

"Just because some people do not follow it properly, we cannot entirely scrap the law. Can we do away with penal code? We cannot," he said while participating in a session at the World Economic Forum on India here.

Sibal was responding to questions on arrests of businessman Ravi Srinivasan and cartoonist Aseem Trivedi and suggestions that sections of the Information Technology Act are being misused by police forces in the country.

"Any offence where the maximum imprisonment is three years or less is bailable under the IT Act, so obviously this particular policeman is ignorant," the minister said. He said any booking under Section 66A of the IT Act is a bailable offence and nobody can be sent to jail. Last month, a small scale industrialist in Puducherry, Srinivasan was arrested for allegedly posting 'offensive' messages on the micro-blogging site Twitter targeting Chidambaram's son Karthi Chidambaram.

In Sept, cartoonist Trivedi was arrested for allegedly putting up banners mocking the Constitution during a rally of anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare in Mumbai late last year and posting the same on his website. Asserting that the government had no intention to control or regulate Internet in the country, Sibal said he himself had been a victim of vicious attack on the Internet.

"There are 500 things by the name of Kapil Sibal and there are some things which I really don't like. But I have not taken action. Someone had written that he wanted to kill me but I did not do anything. I am here, if needed someone can come and kill me," he said in a lighter vein.

PTI