Indian Law to file case / take legal action against junk mail or spam mails

Yes Indian Govt. is working upon it ie. tap unsolicited mails.

The department of information technology (DIT) is planning to insert section 40 of the IPC in the IT Act of 2006 to enable net users to take legal action against the senders of junk e-mails which contain false promises that at times include monetary and other lures, a government official said. The department is in discussion with various stakeholders for suitable inputs.

Since the enforcement of the new section could be a little difficult, the department also wants to adopt more practical mechanisms like enacting a `do-not-mail-me reigstry’ which could immediately cut down such mails. “Putting in place a registry on the lines of the one existing for the telecom users may be one of the options,” the official said.

According to legal experts, section 40 of the IPC is a stringent provision which is applicable even in cases where the promises are illegal or immoral. The offence is punishable with a term of at least six months or up to the extent that is applicable for the type of the damage that has been done to the victim. The punishment could extend up to a period of seven years if the offence comes under the definition of section 420 of the IPC.

Experts further explain that if somebody obtains false promises that may include activities like flesh trading or activities related to money laundering, the appellant would be liable for punishment even if the contract was not legal.

DIT has also proposed to insert another section of IPC — section 4 — in IT Act 2006 to make any activity pertaining to cyber crime illegal, if the crime is being committed by the individual “outside the Indian territory,” the official said.