Pic credit- Thelawmentor
As we move towards what is cyber appellate tribunal I want to explain what is tribunal basically, tribunal is a part of legal system which deals with the specific matters only and it’s function were similar to courts. Therefore ,cyber appellate tribunal is a place where appeal come from the adjudicating officer decision on a matters related to the provision of IT ACT 2008 only. Under Article 323-A says about administrative tribunal whereas Article 323-B says about other tribunals from where cyber appellate tribunal traced in our Constitution.[1]
Cyber regulations appellate tribunal was defined under Sec 48(1) IT ACT 2000 which was rename as cyber appellate tribunal under IT (amendment) ACT 2008. This section provides that central government make tribunal known as cyber appellate tribunal and notified with the provisions in which it make its judgement . It was established in Delhi for the first time and start its functioning from Oct 2006[2]
Composition:-
Cyber appellate tribunal is consist of only one person who is known as the presiding officer ,who appointed by central government.
Qualifications:
Any person who has appointed as an judge of High court or who works under grade -1 officer in Indian legal services for at least 3 yrs can be appointed as a chairman or the presiding officer of cyber appellate tribunal.
Tenure and allowance:
The officer shall be appointed for a tenure of 5yrs or for the age of 65 yrs which ever earlier. Further he gets allowance and salary with an gratuity of pension and other terms after retirement.
Functioning:
Cyber appellate tribunal works as an civil court where disputes related to cybercrime were resolved here the appeals comes from adjudicating officer and no civil court can interfere in when the appeal under the tribunal and the orders have to make compulsory for the parties to obey the order otherwise tribunal can impose restriction on the website or ban that page. If the parties not happy with the decision they can go further to the high court in a particular matter.
Resignation and removal.
Resignation letter can be written by presiding officer by own and submitted to the central government but he cannot relinquish his office before a notice given by central government for the three months from the date of his letter of resignation or the further successor do not take that position.
He may be removed if he found misbehaviour or incapacity to any work during his tenure but he have a reasonable time of being heard from his part.
Current situation of cyber appellate tribunal.
As we come to know how tribunal work and what it is ,it’s current situation shows us how Indian government doesn’t give any concern about the legal system. Today we have large number of internet users with an increasing number of crimes too where everyone needs to be protected by some or other way but this tribunal has been shut down from last 9 yrs when it’s last chairman left his chair due to fulfillment of his tenure no new appointments have been made by govt.to start it’s working again , because of that conflict start between Supreme court and Central government.
In case Vodafone India Ltd vs. Prabhakar Sadekar and ors.
Last case was heard by the cyber tribunal. Counsel for the appellant Saransh Jain was present, according to the notice.However, the matter was just quickly adjourned. As the notice below shows, Agarwal points out that “since the bench is not assembling due the non-availability of the Hon’ble Chairperson, this application is adjourned to December 9th, 2016..[3]
In a earlier statement given by finance minister late Arun jaitley in year 2008 says to get mulls the cyber appellate tribunal with Telecom dispute settlement and appellate tribunals(TDSAT) proposal given in the finance bill due to insufficient funds which cause great conflict all over the judiciary as the this matter comes under the ministry of law how finance minister can interfere in this problem and therefore a petition is filled before Supreme court to intervene in this matter. Although 9 yrs had been passed no results come out till now let see how more we have to wait for the judgment to come .[4]
As central government give more emphasis on the digital India and cashless Bharat program wants to make India digital economy by these statements it make mockery of government agendas.
Need of cyber appellate tribunal
The number of pending cases increasing day to day in the court rooms we need tribunal to resolve a matter in an effective and speedy way to help society. Similarly need of cyber tribunal also increasing as no.of cybercrime happen faster and their even no boundaries of the cybercrime s we cannot find the accused easily so it’s better to have a separate tribunal of these crime so courts burden were less. Even merger can make a great reason of dispute as TDSAT and CyAT both are different sector. So by merging them it make more burden over the tribunal and non- efficient results come out.
[1] https://www.drishtiias.com
[2] https://cybersecurityhive.com
Author- Jaishree Gautam BACL (Nagpur)