Anti-bullying laws in India Introduction This topic is about Indian Laws with the context about Bullying. As we considered firstly about our law related to this discourse that is deals with Constitutional law, the Indian Penal Code , the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC), Bills and Ordinances proposed as well as Acts passed by Parliament, and Case law by the Judiciary consisting of both the Supreme and State Courts(High Courts). As Laws are carry out for the prosperity of the country. Where the each citizen has enjoyed their Rights as well as performed their Duties. As if relate with the context the Anti-bullying law is collectively enacted to improve or to help in reduce and eliminate bullying. This law undertaken in national or sub-national, and is commonly focused at ending bullying in schools or workplaces and even for cyber security purpose. Bullying laws are laws that aim to prevent bullying or address it when it happens or both. Because they are against bullying, they are also called “anti-bullying laws” for clarity. So far, there are only State laws about bullying, but people have suggested a National law. Bullying laws often focus on schools, which are the site of a large amount of bullying behaviour, with bullying being the most problematic during the middle school years (grades 6-8). Bullying laws have pursued different programs and agendas. Laws may or may not criminalize bullying, some preferring to keep the handling of such situations in the realm of families and schools (when appropriate) rather than the Courts. Now it is apt see that what does ''bully'' mean? As in a good dictionary, we can know the following meanings as to the word ''Bully''. Bully (noun): A blustering; Bully (noun): Quarrelsome; Bully (noun): Overbearing person who habitually badgers and intimidates smaller or weaker people; Bully (verb): To cause (someone) to do something by making threats or insults or by using force.
Definition of Bullying (Legal Definition) Bullying means systematically and chronically inflicting physical hurt or psychological distress on one or more students or employees. It is further defined as unwanted and repeated written, verbal, or physical behaviour, including any threatening, insulting, or dehumanizing gesture, by a student or adult, that is severe or pervasive enough to create an intimidating, hostile, or offensive educational environment; cause discomfort or humiliation; or unreasonably interfere with the individual’s school performance or participation; and may involve but is not limited to: teasing, social exclusion, threat, intimidation, stalking, physical violence, theft, sexual, religious, or racial harassment, public humiliation, or destruction of property. The Laws related for the bullying, firstly we have to know about the ways of bullying. As we know the bullying is considered all kind of discomfort or humiliation which leads to affect the person in psychological and physical way. The prior step of any individual is in school. The role of bullying in school stand for torture, teasing, social exclusion, threat, intimidation, stalking, physical violence, theft, sexual, religious and many more. Bullying in School Bullying shall refer to any severe use by one or more students of a written, verbal or electronic expression, or a physical act or gesture, or any combination thereof, directed at another student that has the effect of actually causing or placing the latter in reasonable fear of physical or emotional harm or damage to his property; creating a hostile environment at school for the other student; infringing on the rights of the other student at school; or materially and substantially disrupting the education process or the orderly operation of a school; such as:
Physical Way Any unwanted physical contact between the bully and the victim like punching, pushing, shoving, kicking, slapping, tickling, headlocks, inflicting school pranks, teasing, fighting and the use of available objects as weapons.
Psychological Way Any act which causes damage to a victim’s psyche, the human soul, mind, or spirit.
Emotional Way Any slanderous statement or accusation that causes the victim undue emotional distress like directing foul language or profanity at the target, name-calling, tormenting and commenting negatively on victim’s looks, clothes and body.
Anti-bullying laws in India for School There is no such Legislature for Bullying in School but as we considered about the Legal System of our country the law should make it a legal duty for schools to have such policies and frame guidelines and mandate that bullying and cyber bullying be punishable by schools. It shall then be the responsibility of the Principal to ensure that the policy is framed and implemented. The Raghavan Committee Report has already recommended that teachers and the principal be held liable for acts of bullying of students. So has the Supreme Court in University of Kerala vs. Council, Principal’s colleges, Kerala & Ors 1. It is now a matter of implementation. Both the Raghavan Committee Report and the Supreme Court decision would squarely take within their folds cyber-bullying, though not explicitly mentioned. Now the Question arises, why should the Indian penal laws not applied to a school? You may say that the school boys are only in late teens but do not forget that there are several crimes in various cities including murders which are committed by teenagers today. Teachers cannot hit a boy, or even give him unnecessary harsher punishments. But I have heard of boys being kicked and hit by hockey sticks for not cheering loudly for the house and in a boarding school, a boy was beaten up for playing badly in the game that led to the house losing. One of the boys almost lost his hearing when slapped so hard that his eardrums. One was kicked last year on his hand that he suffered a fracture but had to make up a story to the school hospital due to pressure from the seniors and the regular drama around “sneaking” that leads to boycotts. If the Bullying is tradition which cannot be reported then this tradition has to be stop because tradition never affects the Human Rights. Bullying in Workplaces The issue of bullying at the workplace which is recognised in the west as violence in workplaces, is one that can be covered under ‘work can kill’ or ‘work can exploit’. Bullying 1
Supreme Court in Re Civil Appeal 887 OF 2009 on 8 Dec., 2011.
is persistent unwelcome behaviour, mostly using unwarranted or invalid criticism; nitpicking, fault-finding, also exclusion, isolation, being singled out and treated differently, being shouted at, humiliated, excessively monitored, having verbal and written warnings imposed, and much more. Bullying does not happen in schools only. Grown-ups also indulge in or face bullying by peers and superiors. In the workplace, bullying usually focuses on distorted or fabricated allegations of underperformance or ineptitude. Bullying is a form of abuse, and bullies - and unenlightened employers - always go to great lengths to keep their targets quiet, using threats of disciplinary action, dismissal, and gagging clauses. Often eligible benefits are denied to the victim. It is perhaps, time that we in India began recognising workplace bullying not as an acceptable style of effective management, but as violence directed at the mental well-being of employees. It is not only the multi-lateral banks which shout harsh that India’s pro-labour laws are its biggest deterrent to progress; our popular politicians and political parties of all shade have also come round to the view that our labour needs to be controlled more. In a country where bondage and virtual slavery still exist in the agriculture and mining sectors. Labour makes demands for fairness and justice. Deadlines in the production and targets in the marketing areas are enforced with such fact that our young workers tend to get burned out quicker, trying to meet the company’s demands on them. Unaware that such practices need to be identified as mere psychopathic bullying, and finding no precedence of such identification, our bright youngsters allow themselves to be exploited to any level. Anti-bullying laws in India for Workplaces It is yet to find attention in Indian legislatures and courts of law for the legislation on bullying for workplaces. Our Courts do speak of causing of mental agony as a civil injury; but the bully terminology is never seen used. Violence from a manager or colleagues need not be physical to be injurious. For a people that are nationally bullied by politicians through bandhs, hartals and the like in a routine manner, bullying at the workplace might seem insignificant.
Our lawmakers should lose no time in addressing the issue without waiting for the demand to rise from the labour unions, which themselves use a lot of bullying of their own membership in the name of solidarity and union discipline. India’s being a developed country is itself only a few years away. Anti-bullying legislation is the need of the day as we move on to such capitalist glory. In India there are several strict bullying in the workplace laws and regulations levied by the legal system. These laws are supposed to address all types of workplace harassment including discrimination, sexual nuisance and psychological irritation caused by the employer. India has no legislation against workplace bullying. Deemed criminal violence in other countries, this perversion at the workplace is still ignored by India's law makers. It is long overdue that India legislates to prevent workplace bullying. With the market economy on in the country now, this becomes all the more urgent. Bullying by way of Cyber This is latest trend in present generation of students, and youngsters, perpetrators [known or unknown] target credulous students in social networking websites like FaceBook or other Social Networking Sites. The several cases of posting of alter photos or other mischievous cyber criminal acts to defame and humiliate their targets were reported, especially, when female student contempt the companionship offer or love or marriage proposal of male students. Anti-bullying laws in India for Cyber Crime Cyber Laws & Security, A cyber security strategy has been outlined by DEIT to address the strategic objectives for securing country's cyber space and is being implemented through the following major initiatives:
Security Promotion & Publicity Cyber Laws Provides legal recognition to electronic documents and a framework to support e-filing and e-commerce transactions and also provides a legal framework to mitigate, check cyber crimes.
IT Act 2000.
IT (Amendment) Act, 2008, for user information Document title is "The Gazette of India" Dated February 5, 2009.
Judgment (CAT), Notifications of Rules under section 6A, 43A and 79, Clarification on Rules under Sections 43A and 79 of Information Technology Act, 2000.
CAT: Cyber Appellate Tribunal.
ICERT: Indian Computer Emergency Response Team.
CCA: Controller of Certifying Authorities, The IT Act, 2000 states punishment to all those publishing information which is obscene as also to any form of breach in privacy and confidentiality. The Indian Penal Code also covers this issue. Apart from legal help, victims can also hire private investigators specializing in tracking down cyber bullies. For those who want to find the culprit on their own, you can simply Google Reverse E-mail Finder to find a list of websites which can help you unmask the bully. These websites primarily track the email address down to its user and returns the users identity as also some other personal information.
Section 66A of the Information Technology Act, deals with actions done through a computer or a computer device that are grossly offensive or menacing, or done to annoy, inconvenience, insult, injure or cause ill will against the person it is directed at. Cyberbullying may not always involve false statements. It may involve taunts about a person’s quirks. Section 66A is viewed as a controversial law which has a very wide scope that confers unbridled discretion in enforcement as the terms “grossly offensive”, “menacing”, “done to annoy”, “inconvenience”, “insult”, “injure”, “cause ill will” are not defined. With the vast socio, economic, regional and cultural disparity in India it is difficult to define these terms in a manner to deal with and satisfy all cross sections of society and this is best left to judicial determination. A picture of the victim may be morphed and shown in a comical or sexually suggestive light. If a girl’s picture is morphed, or sexually coloured remarks made against her, it can be construed as words, gestures or acts intended to insult her modesty and may attract up to 1 year imprisonment and a fine or either one.2 Indecent representation of males is not covered under this Section. It could also be transmission of obscene material in electronic form, 3 attracting a punishment of upto 3 years imprisonment with a fine of up to Five Lakh Rupees for the first offence. The punishment for a subsequent conviction is higher. Publishing or transmitting content electronically in which children are depicted in an obscene, indecent or 2
IPC Section 509: “Woman” in this section suggests female. It does not exclude minors. Section 67 of the Information Technology Act, 2000. Even sending an obscene message through the mobile is an offence under the act. Rohit Vedpaul Kaushal v. State of Maharashtra & Ors, 2008(2) AIR BomR90 (Nagpur Bench). 3
sexually explicit manner; or entices a child into an online relationship for the purpose of sexually explicit or otherwise offensive acts or facilitates or records the abuse of children are all actions which result in enhanced criminal liability.4 In the virtual world, people use “user names” which may be fictitious. This is an accepted practice. Where anyone represents himself as another person or another as himself or knowingly substituting one person for another, he commits the offence of cheating by personating which can attract liability for fine and/or imprisonment up to two years.5 Once it is detected that someone is using a false identity to cyber-bully or to cheat someone online, this section can be attracted. But a commonly accepted practice online is the use of fictitious usernames. Impersonation is dealt with in the IT Act.6 New Delhi, April 19, 2015 (IANS), Online abuse was a larger term that may include cyber bullying, stalking, revenge, online defamation, leaking of private information and hacking. Trishna Saikia could not believe it when her best friend created a fake profile of her on a social networking site and sent derogatory messages to common friends in a bid to get back at Saikia for dating a boy she liked. According to the 'Tweens, Teens and Technology 2014 Report' by McAfee, 50 percent of Indian youth have had some experience with cyber-bullying (been cyber-bullied online or witnessed others being so treated), out of which one-third (36 percent) have themselves been cyber-bullied. Sameer Malhotra, director, Mental Health and Behavioural Sciences, Max Hospitals, who treats approximately two to three such cases in a month, said that the effects on the victim include low self-esteem, depression, feelings of loneliness/emptiness, anxiety related symptoms and psychosomatic problems.
**** Submitted ByPiyush Jain
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Section 67A of the Information Technology Act, 2000 IPC: Section 416 6 Section 66D. 5
