Abstract
The rapid digitisation of economic, social and governmental activities has transformed the nature of criminality and created new challenges for contemporary criminal justice systems. India, as one of the world’s largest digital economies, has experienced a substantial expansion of cybercrime, ranging from identity theft, online cheating and cyberstalking to ransomware, financial fraud, deepfakes and other technology-enabled offences. The National Crime Records Bureau’s Crime in India 2024 indicates a significant increase in registered cybercrime cases, demonstrating the growing importance of an effective legal and institutional response. Against this background, this paper examines India’s cybercrime regulatory framework through a doctrinal and comparative legal methodology. It analyses the Information Technology Act, 2000, the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023, and related regulatory mechanisms. Particular attention is given to jurisdiction, electronic evidence, attribution of criminal responsibility, intermediary responsibility, cross-border investigation and emerging technology-enabled offences. The study further compares India’s approach with selected international frameworks, particularly the Budapest Convention on Cybercrime and the regulatory approaches adopted by the European Union, the United Kingdom and the United States. The paper argues that India’s principal difficulty is not the complete absence of cybercrime legislation but the fragmentation of applicable legal provisions across substantive, procedural and regulatory instruments. It concludes that an effective response requires greater doctrinal coherence, specialised investigative capacity, improved electronic-evidence procedures, strengthened international cooperation and a technologically neutral legal framework capable of addressing emerging forms of cybercrime without unnecessarily restricting legitimate digital activity.