Author: manasvi022

CYBER CRIMES

The era of nuclear warfare conceived the idea of a system which could even survive the devastation of nuclear weapons. “A post-apocalypse command grid” was the original idea for Internet -‘Bruce Sterling’ has stated. The idea of ‘internet’ was conceived in the early 60’s while a code for its regulation was mooted in late 90’s . This clearly brings about the reason for the complication of cyber-crime. Cyber-Crime may be said to be an act which violate netesthetics.

INTRODUCTION

The word cyber and its relatives are probably the most commonly used terminologies of the modern era. In the information age the rapid development of computers, telecommunications and other technologies has led to the evolution of new forms of trans-national crimes known as “cyber crimes”. Cyber crimes have virtually no boundaries and may affect every country in the world. They may be defined as “any crime with the help of computer and telecommunication technology”, with the purpose of influencing the functioning of computer or the computer systems.

The extent of loss involved worldwide of cyber crimes is tremendous as it is estimated that about 500 million people who use the Internet can be affected by the emergence of cyber crimes. Cyber crimes are a very serious threat for the times to come and pose one of the most difficult challenges before the law enforcement machinery Most cyber crimes do not involve violence but rather greed, pride, or play on some character weakness of the victims. It is difficult to identify the culprit, as the Net can be a vicious web of deceit and can be accessed from any part of the globe. For these reasons, cyber crimes are considered as “white-collar crimes”. To understand cyber crime as a significantly new phenomenon, with potentially profoundly new consequences, it is necessary to recognize it as a constituent aspect of the wider political, social and economic reconstructing currently effecting countries worldwide. This new technology not only provides opportunities for the profitable development of an international information market but has also raised the specter of new criminal activities to exploit them.

The very technology that enables multinationals to do business more effectively and challenge the individual controls and regulations of nation states, also offers the prospect of globally organized criminal networks. Moreover the free flow of uncensored information on electronic networks and web- sites is as attractive to insurgents and extremist groups as it is to dissidents proclaiming their human rights. Just as crimes have changed with the growth of information technology so have the categories of criminals who engage in such crimes. There are three basic categories of criminals who engage in such crimes, ranging from hackers, information merchants and mercenaries, to terrorists, extremists and deviants.

 Now speaking about the types of cyber crimes, there are divided mainly in four types; Financial, Privacy, Hacking and Cyber Terrorism. Financial crimes means the steal of money of the user or account holders. Likewise, the stole data of companies which leads the financial crimes. Secondly, Privacy crimes includes stealing the private data which leads to ruin the people and let them suffer by misusing their personal data. In, hacking they intentional deface a website to cause damage or loose to the public or owner and diminish its values. Here last but not least the cyber terrorism is not related to terrorist or its organizations but to threat someone on level of creating fear is also the same.

To conclude, we can say that cyber crimes is a violation of not law but the human rights too and to avoid that all we need is some common sense and logical precautions.

Right To Information

The Right to Information Act, 2005 (RTI) is a law enacted by the Parliament of India “to provide for setting out the practical regime of right to information for citizens.” The Act applies to all States and Union Territories of India, except the State of Jammu and Kashmir – which is covered under a State-level law. Under the provisions of the Act, any citizen (excluding the citizens within J&K) may request information from a “public authority” (a body of Government or “instrumentality of State”) which is required to reply expeditiously or within thirty days. The Act also requires every public authority to computerize their records for wide dissemination and to proactively publish certain categories of information so that the citizens need minimum recourse to request for information formally. This law was passed by Parliament on 15 June 2005 and came fully into force on 13 October 2005. Information disclosure in India was hitherto restricted by the Official Secrets Act 1923 and various other special laws, which the new RTI Act now relaxes.

Right to information under constitution and its exception
The right to information movement in India began with the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS) movement to bring in transparency in village accounts through the demand for minimum wages in rural India. False entries in wage rolls were a sign of increasing corruption in the system, which encouraged MKSS to demand official information recorded in government files.

The constitution of India does not clearly provide Right to information. However, the Apex court of the country held in several cases that Right to information is concern with the Article 19 (1)(a) and Article 21 of the Indian constitution which states freedom of expression and speech and Right to life and personal liberty respectively. In other words we can say that it (Right to information) protect the very purpose of the such Articles. Article 19 and Article 21 comes under part 3 of the constitution which is the fundamental Rights of Indian constitution. In this way we can say that Right to Information might be considered as fundamental right of the constitution.

Article 19 of the Constitution of India talks about rights and in Art.19 (1) (a) we have the Freedom of Speech. This Freedom not only extends to the right of expressing the views freely but also the right to know. This right to know also has some limitations to it, for say, information of national security or any other matter which would affect the nation’s integrity. But if contains information for example related to sanitation then it is not a matter of national security and the public has the right to know why such information is with held.

Citizens have a right to know about government affairs. But the right is not absolute; secrecy can be legitimately claimed in respect of transactions with repercussion on public security. In other words, the information which is not in the interest of the public or country cannot be disclosed at any circumstances. Sec.8 of the Right to information Act, 2005 is concerns with the same. In the case of Prabha dutt v. Union of India, the Apex court ordered the superintendent of the Tihar jail to allow the representatives of a few news paper to interview two death sentence culprit under Article 19 (1)(a) though with the observation that the right under Article 19(1)(a) “is not an absolute right, nor indeed does it confer any right on the press to have an unrestricted access to means of information’’. This position has been reiterated in subsequent cases. The right to information was regularly recognized by the court in a number of cases as it is concern with freedom of speech and expression in Article 19(1)(a) until finally it was incorporated in the right to information Act, 2005 and give ultimate mechanism for its utilization.

Right to information Act, 2005 and its exception
The right to information bill was passed by Lok Sabah on 11th may 2005 and by Raj Sabah on 12th may 2005 and took the assent of president on 15th June 2005. It has come as statue book Right to Information Act, 2005 (22 of 2005). It was enacted to provide transparency and accountability of the sovereign authority to the people. Under this Act an individual can make an application to get the information from the public authority. It aids to check the working system of the government. In the democracy of India, where its citizens play a very crucial role, it is very necessary to provide them adequacy, transparency and accountability of the government. Now the question arises is that, is the individual has the right to get any information from public authority? Article 19 (1)(a) (which is a fundamental right) implicit or concern with the right to information but Article 19 (2) of the constitution also states that if the disclosed information affects the integrity or security of the country then government can impose restriction on such sub clause. In other word, a citizen can get the information to the extent which does not affect the secrecy and dignity of the country. So right to information is not an absolute right. Section 8 of the Right to Information Act concerned with the exemption from disclosure of information. It states that any information which affect country’s integrity, security, strategic, scientific economic interest of the state which lead to incitement of an offence and contempt of the court of law, breach of privilege of parliament and state legislature, information regarding trade secret; the disclosure of which would harm the competitive of third party, information received in confidence with foreign government, information related to personal life of individual which has not related to any public interest or activity shall not any obligation to the public authority to be disclosed. Because of such exception it is said that Right to information does not provide absolute right.

Ambiguity and Obstacles
Right to information has also ambiguity. Section 22 of the Right to Information Act 2005 provides that it is to have overriding effect over inconsistent legislation or rules. The Official Secrets Act, 1923, a legacy of British rule in India, contains several provisions prohibiting the flow of information from the Government to ordinary people. It was enacted to protect against spying, but its provisions are far-reaching. They serve not only to restrict access to information, but also to punish the disclosure of certain sorts of information, by any person. Sections 123 and 124 of the Indian Evidence Act, 1872 also impose unnecessary restrictions on making available official information as evidence. The Act is designed as per the state level also. Different states have different rules which create the ambiguity.

Right to information had provided an awesome right to the citizen of India. But still there is not sufficient awareness of the people among their rights. On the other hand the fee structure is also not so favorable. It creates obstacle to achieve the very purpose of the Act or fundamental right

SOCIAL CHANGE AND LAW

The abstract idea of ” social change” evinces dimension of some of the characteristics of a group of people. If any action which affects a group of people who shared values or characteristics can also be said as ”social change.”

Generally, the change in existing pattern of social life is known as ” Social Change”. Society and social conditions never remain static. Generally, social change is to be understood as change in social structure. According to Gainsberg, social change is change in social structure e.g the size of a society, the composition or balance or its part or the type of its organisation. According to Jones, ”social change devotes variation in, or modification of , any aspect of social process,social patterns, social interaction or social organisation.” Davis observed that social change is large number of persons are engaging in activities that differ from those which their immediate fore-fathers engaged in some time before. According to Anderson and Parker, social change involved alteration and structure or functioning of forms or processes themselves.

Social change means there is must change in social structure. Social structure which can be understood as nature, social behavior, social relations, social organizations, community of people. Social change is change in the social order. According to Charles L. Harper, ””significant alteration of social structure and cultural patterns through time.”

In this context, I deem it is apt to remember, the observation of Dennis R. Fox:
”Well-meaning efforts by liberal psychologists to reform the law in keeping with values such as dignity, privacy, justice, and equality are often misguided because law exists to serve the status quo. Law inhibits the systemic, radical social change necessary for psychological and societal well-being. It does so through coercive power, substantive assumptions about human nature, the ideology of law’s legitimacy, a preoccupation with procedure rather than substance, a focus on rational technicality rather than equity, and encouragement for limited, self-defeating legal solutions. Psycho legal scholars should arouse public dissatisfaction with law and assist social movements seeking to overcome legal impediments to social change.”

The theories of Social Change:
1. Linear theory of social change
2. Cyclic theory of social change.

Elements of Social Change:
The word ”social change” is used in history,politics, economics,and sociology. Social change is also an issue in social work, political science, history,sociology, anthropology, and in many social sciences. Social change is being created by revolution, protest,politics, communities, and by direct action. Elements of social change can be separated as follows.
1. Physical or geographical
2. Biological
3. Economic
4. Cultural
5. Psychological
Anthony Giddens observed social change as infra:
Sociology was born of the transformations that wrenched the industrializing social order of the West away from the ways of life characteristic of preceding societies. The world that was created by these changes is the primary object of concern of sociological analysis. The pace of social change has continued to accelerate, and it is possible that we stand on the threshold of transitions as significant as those that occurred in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Shackman, Liu, and Wang, observed two sources of social change. One is ” systematic” and another is ”non-systematic”. Technological innovation, climate change and changes forced by other countries which come under purview of non-systematic source of social change. Generally, changes to society occur through combination of systematic as well as non-systematic processes. Eisenstadt (1973) argued that modernization required a basic level of free resources and the development of standardized and predictable institutions, such as a stable but flexible market system and political process. An additional requirement was that governing institutions be flexible enough to adapt to the changes that come up.

· The classic Hegelian dialectic model of change is based on the interaction of opposing forces. Starting from a point of momentary stasis, Thesis countered by Antithesis first yields conflict but subsequently results in a new Synthesis.

· Thomas Kuhn in The Structure of Scientific Revolutions argued with respect to the Copernican Revolution that people are unlikely to jettison an unworkable paradigm, despite many indications that the paradigm is not functioning properly, until a better paradigm can be presented.

· The Greek philosopher Heraclitus used the metaphor of a river to speak of change thus, “On those stepping into rivers staying the same other and other waters flow” . What Heraclitus seems to be suggesting here, later interpretations notwithstanding, is that, in order for the river to remain the river, change must constantly be taking place. Thus one may think of the Heraclitan model as parallel to that of a living organism, which, in order to remain alive, must constantly be changing.

· Daoist: The Chinese philosophical work Dao De Jing, I.8 and II.78 uses the metaphor of water as the ideal agent of change. Water, although soft and yielding, will eventually wear away stone. Change in this model is to be natural, harmonious and steady, albeit imperceptible.

Law as a means of social control:
Two fold objectives of law to serve is, firstly, to keep up stability and afford orderly life in the society. Secondly, to persuade social change by changing itself according to the needs of the changing society. Thus , law is an important agency of social control. The society supervenes the law for better most socialization. Rule of law in any constitution is the bedrock for democracy. By putting fear in the minds of public, the law is a helpful agency for social control. Law regulates the behavior of the people in society. Law, by using force, makes the people conscious about their duties and obligations. Law saves precious and good concepts of the society. The exploitation of the people is curbed through law. The constitution of India, criminal , civil laws and other statutes are designed to surmount this goal.

The functionalist slant:
According to Talcott Parsons, one of the leaders of this school, change stems from other social systems (through, for instance, cultural influence, as in the case of English education in the former colonies of the British Empire) and tensions and strains within the system itself, especially those related to economic activities. Michael Haralambos, holds that the economy is solely responsible for resolving societal problems, with industrialism playing an especially crucial role. Functionalists also trust that cultural norms and values unite society, which is, to a great extent, resistant to change, and thus make certain that change in social structure is likely to be slow if it conflicts with not easily modified cultural, religious or political principles. According to Harper, short-term changes, as in family developmental stages, may be obvious and easy to comprehend, but they may not actually constitute changes at all in the long run .

Law as an instrument of social change:
To understand the social change through law and legal system, it is pertinent to understand that the working of legal system in the light of political,social,economic perspectives which can be seen in the constitution of India. Law is a mirror to know how people relate to one another , their values,what they consider worth preserving in life, and how they define their own security.

Law and Public opinion:
The law , which is molded through public opinion is thus the result of state action in accordance with the public opinion. Here it is necessary to remember that when Rajiv Gandhi government waned to bring defamation bill, because of the opposition to the bill in the public, the government dropped the idea. The public opinion is the reflection of the Peoples will. Public opinion becomes law.

Social change and the constitution of India:
Preamble is a key to open the statute and consists of source and objectives of the statute. Literally preamble means preliminary statement in writing or in speech or an introductory part of the statute. The word ”Pre ” means ”before”. ” Amble” means ”walk”. Thus , it is known the word ” preamble” means ”before walk”.

The preamble declaration provides that we the people of India having solemnly resolved to constitute India into a sovereign,socialist,secular,democratic republic and Justice: Social, economic and political Liberty of thought, expression , belief, faith and worship. Equality of status and of opportunity and to promote among them all. Fraternity assuring the dignity of the individual and the unity and integrity of the nation.

The Supreme Court of India in Beru Bari’s case,1969 observed that preamble is not part of the constitution and hence the parliament has no power to amend the preamble. Later, in Kesavananda Bharati vs State of Kerala,1973 the Court held that there is no wrong in treating preamble as part of constitution.

Conclusion:
A systems perspective must acknowledge that social problems are interconnected rather than isolated. People should be advocates for radical perspectives defensible on both psychological and political grounds, in keeping with values such as dignity, autonomy, equality, and justice.

CAUSES of juvenile crimes

These days there has been considerable increase in the number of the criminal activities in which the juveniles are getting indulged day by day. In legal terminology the juvenile is a person who is generally lies in age group of 16 to 18 years. Earlier, the trend observed in juvenile crimes was inclined to petty crimes to a greater extent. But now a days, the trend has increasingly shifted towards serious and heinous crimes as the juvenile are losing the tenderness of their age and innocence pf their souls. Heinous offences are comparatively graver in nature and have a serious impact on physicality and psychic health of a person, for instance, crimes like rape, murder, homicide, drug abuse, etc.

Now, “Heinous Crimes” include the offences for which the minimum punishment under Indian Penal Code(45 of 1860) or any other law for the time being in force is imprisonment for seven years or more.

The most recent examples are cases of Yamunanagar, where a sixteen year old boy killed a seven year old child or the Haryana Case where a eighteen year old student killed his own principal in the school. The most infamous which is talked about is is the Delhi Gang Rape Case in which a sixteen year old juvenile was involved and another is Shakti Mill Gang Rape Case where two juveniles were involved. Although no one is born criminal and its the circumstances which make any individual an offender.

There are several reasons associated with the heinous crime like nuclear family, family violence, mental health, harmonious change, racism etc. But in India the rate of juvenile crimes is rising because of the poverty and negative impact of social media on teenagers.

Let’s discuss the causes in detail;

  1. FAMILY- The values and ethics of  the juvenile is derived by the guidance and parenthood of the family and parents respectively. Family is the first social group of any child from where they learn the difference between good& bad, right& wrong and values& norms. The behavior of any child is depends upon the way of his upbringing by his family. The family plays a very significant role in a teen’s life. And sometimes it’s the most important reason behind the offensive behavior of a juvenile. The child motivates to act heinous offense because of the violence occurred in his family or because of the abusive nature of parents which lead the juvenile stubborn and rigid and he get involved in criminal activities. Hence, the kind of values the family sow, the same kind of motivation the juvenile ripe. If the family members were engaged in any kind of criminal activity it directly gives a negative impact on the juvenile.
  2. ABUSIVE PARENTING- The pattern of parenting is also an essential cause behind the heinous offense performed by a juvenile. If the parents are abusive or too strict it will always led the child in dark offenses. Example; In Great Noida Case a 17 year old boy killed his mother and sister because they abusively scolded him for studies. Hence, abusive parenting has also brings negative impact on a juvenile life.
  3. PSYCHOLOGICAL PROBLEMS- Psychological problems are also one of the important factor behind the high rate of heinous crimes by the juvenile like depression, anxiety, frustration and mental illness by the pressure of family, society and media which can led them into criminal activities.
  4. HARMONAL CHANGE- Harmonal changes is also a big cause in itself because in the period of adolescence there are various number of hormonal changes occur in the juvenile body, sometime the excessive change in emotion of anger, love and sorrowness can lead them in the direction of destruction and engage them in the trap of heinous offenses.
  5. SOCIAL EVILS-The social evils in India is currently rising. It includes ageism, racism, sexism etc. and it leads the child in violence

-Like in society people generally do racism by defining white / fair color as beautiful & black / dark skin color as ugly. This kind of statement or stereotype brought negativity in child’s mind & create a hazard violence in him.

–  Also in India, boys are consider as pride and daughters are consider a burden which create anger in girls and they led on a wrong path. These kind of social evils leads the juvenile in criminal offence.

6. MORAL ISSUES – Morality is an important concern for teens in these days. They should know their values ethics but due to lack of respect towards their elders & family members. Their valueless attitude tend them into hatred and violence towards the society.

7.  SEX INDLGENCE – The teenagers who experience sexual assault in their childhood may develop some kind of repulsiveness in their mind and personality. So, in their adolescent they want to have sex and too much of sex variance can lead them in kidnapping, rape cases and sexual child assault to another kid as they have been treated earlier.

8. ECONOMICS ISSUES – In India, the youth have high financial aspiration which they can not afford and for the fulfillment of their particular ambition and status they choose the criminal offense such as robbery etc.

9. POVERTY – It is one of the most important and crucial factor in juvenile crime in India. The teen attracts to do illegal activities as they are poor so they could not get proper education which lead them unemployment and engagement of school. So for their basic needs they involve in criminal activities like robbery; due to their poor status they could not get proper food and can not remove their hunger and involve themselves in cheap smoking and consumption of alcohol which help them to sleep properly without having the full meal. Even due to lack of money they sale drugs involve themselves in prostitution and other heinous crimes.

Poverty is the cause in India by which juvenile have nothing to do and only to think in the direction of destruction and so they do only damages to the public property lead in curfew for attention and term themselves as adults and show hatred in other forms of social evils.

10- ROLE OF SOCIAL MEDIA – The role of social media is one of the most crucial and critical causes behind the heinous offenses of juvenile crime in India because they influence by the thing shown on it.

Hence, it is quite evident that juvenile delinquents do not have any inbuilt proclivity for getting indulged in criminal activities but certain adverse conditions force them to enter the gloomy world of crimes. So, its our responsibility as a society with the help of government and legal system to ensure that the children of tender age get the right education and environment. For this there are many areas which need to be worked up like improved living conditions, counselling, better psychological treatments, accessible opportunities of educations, etc. Also some necessary provisions need to be made to make the future of juveniles “better and brighter”.

law related to mental health in india

INTRODUCTION

In the current time of COVID-19 pandemic, mental health is an issue that has hugely and drastically affected the individuals all over the world. People are facing stress, anxiety and depression because of the disruption in their daily routine.

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN MENTAL HEALTH AND MENTAL ILLNESS

Now “Mental Health” and “Mental Illness” are two different psychological terms but often used as they represent the same meaning, but they do not stand for the same thing. Mental health is about mental wellness-we all have mental health whereas Mental illness is when someone is diagnosed with mental disorder.

DEFINITION

According to WHO, “Mental health is a state of well-being in which an individual realizes his or her own abilities can cope with normal stress of life, can work productively, and is able to make a contribution to his or her community.”

In other words mental health refers to cognitive, behavioral and emotional well being. It defines about how an individual think, feel and behave.

MENTAL HEALTH AND LAWS IN INDIA

Mental health workforce in India (per 100,000 of population) includes psychiatrists (0.3), nurses (0.12), psychologists (0.07) and social workers is very low. For laws related to mental health the Mental Health Care Bill 2013 was introduced to Rajya Sabha in August 2013 and after 134 official amendments, was passed in August 2016. Properly implemented, mental health legislation plays a significant role in protecting the rights to mentally ill, ensuring access to care and promoting social justice foe the mentally ill, their families and carers.

Mental Health Care Act 2017 was passed on 7 April 2017 and came into forces from 7 July 2018. It states that mental illness is determined “in accordance with nationally and internationally accepted medical standards (including the latest edition of the International Classification of Diseases of the World Health Organisation) as maybe notified by the Central Government.” This Act superseded the previously existing Mental Health Act, 1987 that was passed on 22 May 1987.

CONCLUSION

To conclude, I would like to say that mental illness is a serious problem but on an individual level, we can help our friends, family and near ones by talking to them and initiating to help them to open up about their situations and let us help them to understand the root cause which can lead them to better solutions.