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Section 84: Punishment for attempt to commit offences

Information Technology Act • Official Statutory Text & Practice Guide

Statutory Regulation
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Act 2000
Section 83 All 90 Sections of Information Technology Act Section 85

Legal Commentary & Landmark Judgments: Section 84

Section 84 criminalizes the attempt to commit offences under the Information Technology Act, 2000, providing that whoever attempts to commit an offence or causes such attempt shall be punished with imprisonment for a term extending to one-half of the longest term provided for that offence, or fine, or both.

  • Criminalization of Inchoate Cyber Crimes: Punishes acts that cross the threshold from mere preparation into an actual attempt to breach a computer system or commit an IT Act offence.
  • Proportional Sentencing Mechanism: Prescribes a maximum sentence of one-half of the longest term of imprisonment or fine provided for the completed substantive offence.
  • Harmonization with General Criminal Principles: Applies the classical criminal jurisprudence of inchoate liability to modern electronic hacking, phishing, and unauthorized decryption attempts.
Key Landmark Precedents:
  • Koppula Venkat Rao v. State of A.P. (2004) 3 SCC 602: Supreme Court outlined the distinction between preparation and attempt, holding that an attempt commences when an overt step towards execution is executed.
  • Abhayanand Mishra v. State of Bihar AIR 1961 SC 1698: Constitution Bench established that a person commits an attempt when they take a step towards the commission of the offence that would have succeeded but for outside intervention.
  • State of Maharashtra v. Mohd. Yakub (1980) 3 SCC 57: Supreme Court affirmed that overt acts demonstrating clear intent to commit the prohibited crime constitute an actionable attempt in criminal law.
Courtroom Practice & Strategic Litigation Guidance:

In cyber prosecution where an accused launched a brute-force decryption script or phishing campaign that was blocked by enterprise firewalls before exfiltrating data, charge the accused under Section 84 read with Section 66; the failed attempt remains fully punishable.

Section 83 All 90 Sections of Information Technology Act Section 85