IT Act has to be more deterrent: Justice Sirpurkar

Thiruvananthapuram, Feb 8 : Supreme Court Justice V.S. Sirpurkar Sunday said the present Information Technology (IT) Act is soft and has to be more deterrent to curb increasing cyber crimes in India.

Sirpurkar, who was addressing a seminar on "Cyber crimes, cyber laws and cyber security" at the Centre for Development of Imaging Technology here, said e-courts should be set up immediately.

"These specialised e-courts have to be manned by trained judges and such cases have to be settled in a time bound manner," he said.

He said IT Act 2000 is really soft when it comes to cyber crimes.

"I feel that cyber crimes have to be dealt with very strongly because this is being done by knowledgeable people and to deal with it the need of the hour is for training the investigating, prosecuting and judicial agencies," Sirpurkar added.

He said a person who detects cyber crimes has to be more intelligent than the one who does the crime and training should, therefore, be provided to all those concerned.

N.R. Madhava Menon, member of the Committee on Centre-State Relations, expressed doubt on the legal system in India and said it should be adequately equipped to respond to the challenges posed by cyber crimes.

"Public education in this area has to be taken up seriously and for that a master plan has to be prepared so that it reaches out to the people who use the cyber space. One way to tackle this crime is that huge fines should be imposed on those who are caught. A fine of Rs.3,000 or Rs.5,000 will not be helpful, it should range in crores," he said.

--IANS