Digital India Journey: A Decade of Transformation
Last year, on 1st July 2025, India celebrated a decade of the Digital India Journey. In 2015, it was inaugurated by Prime Minister :contentReference[oaicite:0]{index=0}, with the objective of deploying technology to simplify and improve the quality of life of every Indian. The digital economy is also growing fast, contributing 11.74% to the national income in 2022–23 and expected to reach 13.42% by 2024–25. According to the State of India’s Digital Economy Report 2024, released by ICRIER Prosus Centre for Internet and Digital Economy (IPCIDE), India now ranks third in the world for digitalisation of the economy. By 2030, India’s digital economy is projected to contribute nearly one-fifth of the country’s overall economy.
Growing Digital Vulnerability
This milestone has not just marked the greater public access, but has also widened the vulnerability surface. India’s paradigm digital shift was envisioned to enhance operational efficiency, transparency and citizen-centric services to bolster public trust by ensuring governmental accountability. Recent revelations, as articulated by Hon’ble Justice Satish Chandra, revealed an attempt to defraud him through a fake challan SMS and a cloned government portal. A retired South Delhi-based Doctor couple was defrauded of nearly Rs. 15 crore after being kept under a protracted Digital Arrest. It signals a pervasive and systematic Governance breakdown and a crisis of digital trust.
Citizens At Risk
If even the highest echelons of the judiciary can be deceived by such sophisticated frauds, ordinary Indian citizens, precisely first-time digital users with limited experience, Senior citizens with lower digital familiarity, economically vulnerable populations, and even tech-savvy individuals are equally at risk. This heightened vulnerability elevates Digital scams to a pressing national issue.
Emerging Cybercrime Trends
Cybercrime has become an everyday reality, where particularly Digital Arrest scams and fake challans are an alarming trend. Digital Arrest entails fraudulent calls and messages warning that individuals are under investigation, where impostors pose as law enforcement, create panic, and literally digitally arrest individuals until data is shared. They could use a name and title that seem authoritative to lend credibility to their deception.
Types Of Digital Scams
- Digital Arrest Scams: Fraudulent calls and messages posing as law enforcement, creating fear and coercing individuals into sharing sensitive information.
- Fake Challan Scams: Scammers impersonate government authorities, banking officials, traffic police and dupe individuals into paying fines and penalties that are non-existent.
- Other Scams: Cloned government websites, SMS links, and emails that closely mimic official government portals.
Constitutional And Social Impact
These scams are frequently driven by well-coordinated transnational syndicates that have not only financially victimised citizens to the tune of crores but also inflicted enduring psychological scars, leaving victims distrustful of digital systems.
Over and beyond psychological and economic impact, these scam calls into question constitutional concerns, especially Article 21 of the Constitution, which affirms the Right to a Dignified Life and Personal Liberty and also includes the mental well-being of individuals and undermines the very foundation of the democratic constitutional framework of India.
Erosion Of Public Trust
The scams perpetrated in the name of state authority are subjected to prolonged coercion, persistent surveillance, arrest threats and digital confinement without due process. Such practices strike at the blurred line between legitimate government actions, criminal intimidation, dignity, erode public faith in the system and have a deterrent effect on personal autonomy. It shows direct curtailment of the constitutional guarantee of individual liberty, equality, fraternity and socio-economic and political justice.
Legal Framework for Cyber Fraud in India
Currently, India addresses Cyber fraud through the provisions of the Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, including offences such as Cheating, Criminal Intimidation, Theft, etc., together with the Information Technology Act, and its 2008 amendments, as well as the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023. However, in a fast-paced and escalating interconnected digital environment, fraudsters operate swiftly with transnational coordination. Emerging fraudulent acts such as Digital Arrests, Cloned Government Websites, Fake Challan Scams and similar cyber scams lack a clear and distinct statutory recognition in Indian law.
This legal ambiguity is further compounded by:
- Delays in registering cybercrime complaints
- Uncertainty in determining jurisdiction in interstate cyber frauds
- Technological limitations
Collectively, these inadequacies not only impede effective detection, investigation and enforcement but also highlight a widening legislative and structural vacuum in tackling and responding to the dynamic and intricate environment of cyber threats.
Role of Digital Intermediaries and Governance Failure
A crucial yet largely overlooked facet of governance failure lies in the overlapping but uncoordinated accountability mechanism of Digital intermediaries such as:
- Online payment gateways
- Spoofed numbers
- Fraudulent SMS and payment links
- Financial systems including UPI/RTGS
- Banks and other online platforms
These entities stand as the initial interface between individuals and fraudsters. Although the Information Technology Act and Criminal Laws mandate safeguards, real-time protective mechanisms and the inconsistent enforcement show systematic gaps. The absence of appropriate and enforceable responsibilities on private intermediaries and the lack of technical literacy to detect these frauds undermine proactive mitigation of cyber fraud.
Strategic Reforms Required
Strategically tackling this menace of emerging cyber frauds and restoring digital trust among citizens requires targeted and coordinated intervention of the legislature and judiciary by:
- Explicitly criminalising Digital Arrest and other related scams as clearly distinct and identifiable cybercrimes
- Imposing statutory obligations on Digital intermediaries to ensure real-time prevention
- Ensuring prompt detection and removal of cloned websites and deceptive communications
- Establishing a delineated inter-state jurisdictional management framework
- Preventing procedural delays in detection, investigation and prosecution
Nationwide Digital awareness programmes are imperative and equally important for structured capacity building.
Judicial Intervention and Its Limits
The decision of the Hon’ble :contentReference[oaicite:0]{index=0} to take suo motu cognisance of these scams and direction to the Central Investigation to coordinate signifies the judicial acknowledgement of the gravity of the issue and the necessity for immediate intervention forthwith, not only to tackle individual fraudulent incidents, but to uphold public trust in institutional credibility in evolving digitised India.
However, the expanding risks emanating from Digital scams cannot be addressed by the judiciary in isolation. It requires a comprehensive approach involving:
- Legislative reforms
- Upgraded inter-state coordination
- Nationwide Digital awareness initiatives
Without decisive, coordinated, and future-oriented reforms, the promise of digital governance risks being eclipsed by the enduring crisis of trust of the public in India’s digital framework.
End-Notes:
- https://www.pib.gov.in/PressNoteDetails.aspx?ModuleId=3&NoteId=154788®=3&lang=2
