Four offences remain non- bailable

Non bailable offences of CSA

Accessing critical information illegally, computer system, cyber terrorism
offences hacking related offences

Staff Reporter :

The Cabinet on Monday in principle gave its final approval to the newly drafted ‘Cyber Security Act (CSA), 2023’, which will replace the ‘Digital Security Act (DSA), 2018’, keeping provision two sections of the existing law bailable.
This approval was given in the regular meeting of the Cabinet at the Prime Minister’s Office with PM Sheikh Hasina in the chair.
After the meeting Law Minister Anisul Huq talked to media about the CSA while Cabinet Secretary M. Mahbub Hossain also briefed reporters about the outcomes of the Monday’s Cabinet meeting.
Law Minister Anisul Huq said that after amending to two sections of the proposed law, now all sections except the one section dealing with technical issues, are bailable. The draft law is now expected to be placed in the Jatiya Sangsad (Parliament) soon with the vetting of the Law Ministry.
One of the sections that have been made bailable is
Section 21 of the DSA dealing with publication or propaganda against the Liberation War, the spirit of the Liberation War, the Father of the Nation, the national anthem or the national flag.
Under the DSA, a person could be imprisoned for a maximum of 10 years and fined up to Tk1 crore for the offenses under the section 21. Earlier, the Law Minister had said the sentence for this crime has been reduced to seven years in the proposed CSA.
Another amendment was made in the section of defamation. After the amendment in the section, there will be no jail term for defamation. Only penalty would be the punishment for defamation under the CSA.
The Cabinet had initially approved the draft “Cyber Security Act 2023” in principle in a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on August 7 this year.
On August 9, the draft of the act was published on the website of the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Division, seeking the views of stakeholders within 14 days for this. It received around 500 responses, according to the ministry.
According to the officials, the proposed law will replace the DSA with amendments to some sections of the existing law and the addition of new penalties for hacking-related offences.
However, following the publication of the draft CSA earlier this month, legal experts had said the new law is basically rebranding the DSA without much value addition and isn’t expected to bring much change on the ground.
The DSA was enacted in the year 2018, aimed at replacing the controversial Section 57 of the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Act, 2006 (as amended in 2013), which was passed during the BNP-Jamaat reign.