Cyber terrorism and Indian legal regime: a critical appraisal of Section 66 (F) of the Information Technology Act

The menace of terrorism, when boosted by information and communication technology, incarnates into cyber-terrorism. This new avatar of terrorism is more sophisticated than the traditional one. By virtue of its labyrinthine and trans-border, cyber terrorism presents a fundamental challenge to democratic states. Many countries, curbed and curtailed the freedom of speech and expression, liberty, privacy and other fundamental rights in order to combat the menace of cyber terrorism. India, one of the world’s largest democracies, enacted specific anti-terrorism laws to tackle the threat of terrorism and included a provision concerning cyber terrorism in the Information Technology Act. However, combating the blatant and hidden acts of cyber terrorism is not a regular criminal justice-endeavour; instead, it is a challenge to the state machinery. This paper aims to make an inquiry into the conceptual framework of cyber terrorism and highlights the Indian legal regime to tackle the menace of cyber terrorism. The article further critically examines Section 66 (F) of the Information Technology Act to prove the hypothesis that this provision is a stringent measure, and is against the very structure of democracy and the rule of law.