Kerala High Court seeks State’s response to PIL seeking mechanism to implement cyber laws

A public interest litigation (PIL) was recently filed before the Kerala High Court seeking a State-level mechanism specialised to prevent cyber attacks.

The Keralam government informed a Division Bench of Chief Justice Soumen Sen and Justice V.M. Syam Kumar that it would file a detailed affidavit.

Pooja Maheshwar of Ernakulam, the petitioner, further sought a preventative monitoring wing within the State mechanism to actively monitor social media trends, identify patterns of coordinated harassment, and detect high-risk digital environments to prevent harm.

The petitioner pointed out that cyber laws under the Information Technology Act and the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita focussed primarily on ensuring punishment after the commission of a crime. She stated that the police must be able to intervene before continuous cyber harassment drove a person to severe psychological trauma.

She cited nine separate instances where cyber harassment had been a factor in alleged suicides to demonstrate that the digital aspect of a suspected suicide could not be treated as an incidental or secondary matter.

Ms. Maheshwar said that in some cases, the alleged harassment occurred directly through social media posts; in others, it occurred through private messaging services. She highlighted that in several cases, mobile phones, deleted accounts, messages, videos, social media posts, and other electronic evidence become central to determining the circumstances preceding the death.

The petitioner clarified that the PIL did not intend to obstruct freedom of expression or media operations but to protect the lives and dignity of individuals. She sought the appointment of a special team comprising cyber forensic experts under the supervision of a senior police officer.

She elaborated that at present, the regulatory framework held several mechanisms for intermediaries, including grievance redressal, compliance officers, law-enforcement coordination, complaint tracking, and, in specified circumstances, originator identification. However, it lacked a coordinated mechanism to identify patterns of serious cyberbullying and technology-facilitated harassment.