Telangana High Court judge Justice Moushumi Bhattacharya has said judges must be equipped with adequate knowledge to handle the evolving cybercrime landscape, noting that the internet has boundless borders and digital offences increasingly raise complex questions of law, evidence and enforcement. She made the remarks on Saturday during a session at the Sikkim High Court’s National Conclave on Technology and Judicial Education.
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Cybercrime Challenges Cross Borders
Justice Bhattacharya was speaking during a session on “Curriculum Globalization and Transnational Law.” The discussion was moderated by Meera Furtado, General Secretary of CLEA and Head of Business and Humanities at the International Study Centre, University of Sussex, along with Bombay High Court judge Justice Somasekhar Sundaresan.
The remarks came in response to a question on how judicial training can help judges deal with cross-border disputes involving commerce, environmental law and cybercrime while remaining grounded in domestic law. The question also raised whether commonwealth jurisdictions could offer useful synergies in such matters.
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Speaking on cybercrime, Justice Bhattacharya referred to the trans-border nature of online offences and said the internet’s boundaries are not confined by geography. She said courts must look beyond localised cybercrime hotspots and prepare for cases involving identity theft, hacking, ransomware threats, cyber arrests and digital arrests.
She observed that these offences are part of a “potential evolving threat landscape” and require judges to understand how such cases should be handled. Her comments highlighted the need for judicial education to keep pace with rapidly changing forms of cyber-enabled crime.
Fragmented Enforcement and Digital Evidence Concerns
Justice Bhattacharya also referred to the Budapest Treaty on Cybercrime and noted that the Law Commission had taken up cybercrime from a comprehensive perspective in 2019. She said enforcement remains fragmented in several areas, particularly when it comes to digital evidence standards, authentication and admission of digital records.
She said pressing questions remain over whether uniform norms exist for admitting digital evidence in criminal cases, how cybercrime treaties should be interpreted, and how data convention norms and data theft should be addressed. Her remarks underscored the growing need for judges to be trained in both domestic legal frameworks and transnational cybercrime challenges.
