Open Access Research Article
EMERGING CHALLENGES IN THE ENFORCEMENT OF CRIMINAL LAW IN THE DIGITAL AGE: AN INDIAN PERSPECTIVE
Abstract
ABSTRACT
The
migration of criminal conduct from physical to virtual space has outpaced the
doctrinal and institutional capacity of India's criminal justice system,
exposing structural fault-lines in investigation, evidence and adjudication.
This paper undertakes a doctrinal and analytical examination of the enforcement
of criminal law in the digital age from an Indian perspective, tracing the
transition from the Indian Penal Code, 1860, the Code of Criminal Procedure,
1973 and the Indian Evidence Act, 1872 to the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023
("BNS"), the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023
("BNSS") and the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023 ("BSA"),
which came into force on 1 July 2024. It situates this transition against the
Information Technology Act, 2000, the Digital Personal Data Protection Act,
2023 and the CERT-In Directions, 2022, to ask whether the new criminal law
architecture meaningfully addresses cybercrime, digital evidence, cross-border
jurisdiction and privacy-security trade-offs, or whether it merely re-codifies
old categories in new vocabulary. Employing doctrinal legal research
methodology supported by secondary quantitative data drawn from National Crime
Records Bureau reports, Ministry of Home Affairs disclosures and Indian Cyber
Crime Coordination Centre statistics, the paper analyses landmark jurisprudence
on electronic evidence — including Anvar P.V. v. P.K. Basheer, Shafhi Mohammad
v. State of Himachal Pradesh and Arjun Panditrao Khotkar v. Kailash Kishanrao
Gorantyal — alongside emerging issues such as deepfake-enabled offences,
artificial-intelligence-facilitated fraud, ransomware extortion,
encrypted-communication interception, jurisdictional conflict in cloud-hosted
evidence, and the chronic shortage of trained cyber-forensic personnel at the
district level. The findings indicate that while the new criminal codes make
incremental gains — recognising electronic records as primary evidence,
mandating audio-video documentation of search and seizure, and enabling e-FIR
and zero-FIR mechanisms — enforcement remains hindered by fragmented
inter-agency coordination, low conviction rates, capacity deficits in
cyber-forensic infrastructure, and an absence of harmonised international
mutual legal assistance mechanisms. The paper concludes with a set of doctrinal
and institutional recommendations, including a dedicated cybercrime procedural
code, mandatory forensic certification standards, judicial specialisation, and
accession to international frameworks such as the Budapest Convention, to
strengthen the enforcement of criminal law in India's digital ecosystem.
Published Paper
Author Details
Authors: SAHIL SEHRAWAT
Registration ID: 1013066 | Published Paper ID: IJLRA13066
Year: Aug-2026 | Volume: 3 | Issue: 5
Approved ISSN: 2582-6433 | Country: Delhi, India
Page No.: 1722-1746
Article Information
EMERGING CHALLENGES IN THE ENFORCEMENT OF CRIMINAL LAW IN THE DIGITAL AGE: AN INDIAN PERSPECTIVE
Authors: SAHIL SEHRAWAT
- Journal IJLRA
- ISSN 2582-6433
- Volume 3
- Issue 5
About Journal
International Journal for Legal Research and Analysis
- AbbreviationIJLRA
- ISSN2582-6433
- AccessOpen Access
- LicenseCC 4.0
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