Celina waiting for justice

Celina Jaitley would never have expected that a photoshoot she did last year would come back to haunt her.

But it has — in the form of a gadget ad, which features the actress wearing panties that have the words ‘slide to unlock’ written across them. The pictures, which have been morphed, says Celina, have appeared on two websites. She is livid at their misuse and has taken the matter to the cyber crime department. “The law has to take its course now. I want to make sure that people who have harmed my reputation will be prosecuted. I’m sure the police will help me with that,” said Celina. But will she get justice?

Unlikely, say cyber law experts, because in the nine years of the Indian IT Act’s existence, there have been only four cyber crime convictions, and only two relating to pornography. And recent amendments to the Act have ensured that the laws are much softer on cyber criminals. The biggest problem, though, is the lack of enforcement, says cyber law expert Na Vijayshankar. “There is a general lack of interest in the police force in following up cyber crime complaints, especially those related to publishing or transmitting, or causing to be published or transmitted in the electronic form any material that contains a sexually explicit act or conduct. Moreover, most porn-related complaints are filed by individuals, who, with time, may not push for justice,” he explains.

Though cyber law expert Pavan Duggal also berates the lack of enforcement of cyber laws, he adds in the defence of the enforcers that most cyber crime cells don’t have the wherewithal to seize, preserve and produce (with tampering) electronic evidence required for convictions. “There is also a lack of political will. They don’t want to litigate cyber cases as these are mostly transnational crimes with perpetrators outside the country. We don’t have stringent laws for such cases,” he says.

And the amendments to the IT Act that were made effective Feb 5, 2009 have not helped the cause, say experts. “The amendments have covered newer crimes, but have gone soft on criminals as the quantum of punishment has gone down,” says Vijayshankar. Moreover, cyber crimes have now become bailable offences, adds Pavan. “It encourages the perpetrator to destroy electronic evidence once out on bail. And even if you are convicted, you get a maximum sentence of three years, down from five years earlier,” he says.