New Delhi : In a significant decision on Monday, a Delhi court granted bail to the two partners of SoftWeb Solutions - Mr Amit Pasari and Mr Kapil Juneja, who were recently arrested on the charges of hacking. The Court of Mr P K Gauba, additional sessions Judge on Monday gave bail to Mr Pasari and Mr Juneja, who were accused by Mr Manmohan Gupta, of hacking his Website called Go2nextjob.com. The case was registered under the Section 66 of the Information Technology (IT) Act, 2000, which pertains to hacking and Section 406, the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for criminal breach of trust.Arguing on behalf of the accused Mr Pavan Duggal, advocate Supreme Court, contended, that no offense of hacking under section 66 of the IT Act, 2000 was applicable, since Mr Gupta did not pay any money for the Web space taken from the accused persons, who were running Web hosting services. Mr Duggal further argued that blocking of access to a Website for non-payment of Web space charges, was at best a civil dispute and the concerned complainant could ask for damages under the IT Act, 2000.
He said that section 66 could not be so widely interpreted to defeat the object of the new law and the accused persons had not hacked the Website of the complainant since the complainant had no legal right towards the said Webspace. "Misinterpretation of Section 66 of the IT Act, 2000 could lead to a virtual closure of the Web hosting industry in India and could never allow any Web hosting service to recover legal dues from its clients," he explained.
Mr Pasari and Mr Juneja were arrested on the February 6, following a complaint by Mr Gupta. Subsequently, they were denied bail by the metropolitan magistrate on February 8.
Copyright © 2001 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
