Internet Regulation in Karnataka: Some insights from the Police

Sarai I-Fellowship Post 4.2

Thanks to the assistance of Prof. Ramarkrishna, a faculty member here at NLSIU Bangalore, I was able to meet Detective Inspector Vinayak of the Karnataka Police and ask several questions of him regarding Internet regulation here in the State of Karnataka. He answered most of my questions, though he did indicate that he'd prefer that I not maintain an audio recording since he thought that it would be more appropriate that I recorded one with his superiors instead.

What I gathered from him is as follows. With regards as to whether there is any specific sanction for the regulatory framework here concerning cybercafes here, there is a government order to that effect. This government order (which one should remember is an exercise of rule creation by the executive; not clear sanction by the legislature) apparently mandates that cybercafes have to maintain information as to their users, and that to in a prescribed register format. Supposedly, this government order was passed under the Information Technology Act, 2000 though I personally maintain that the Act in fact does not provide any such clear authority. Inspector Vinayak also stated that the Secretary, Information Technology & Biotechnology has been designated as the adjudicatory authority here in this state, meaning that all civil matters in Karnataka coming under the Information Technology Act come to him.

With respect to the issue of the regulation of access to certain forms of online content, mainly the classic example of pornography, I was told that there are no special rules here in Karnataka concerning access. According to Inspector Vinayak, accessing such materials was generally not a crime and hence not a matter of concern to the Karnataka Police. However, with respect to the issue of whether the usage of cybercafes to access pornographic online content was an issue as important to the Karnataka Police as it is to the Mumbai Police (whose concern for the same is quite well reported), he said that while it was not as deep a concern it still had to be kept in mind that exhibition of such content in a public place was as offence under the Indian Penal Code in the view of the Karnataka Police. On the issue of publishing such content online, he said that there was one case taken on by the Karnataka Police concerning the maintenance of a website with such material, though he wasn't clear as to the details.

He was aware of the notification empowering CERT-In as the nodal agency for all website blocking requests, and in response to a query of mine said that there had been no such website blocking requests from Karnataka as per his knowledge. As to the matter of how the Karnataka Police engage with Internet Service Providers (ISPs), it is apparently the case that these ISPs provide direct evidence of access and physical addresses of users when requested to do so by the police. The exact manner in which such requests were framed was not clear, though he seemed to indicate that is was mostly done in the course of investigation of specific cases.