Sec 57 being kept in Digital Security Act in one way or the other

The draft of the ‘Digital Security Act’, which has incorporated certain provisions of the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Act’s controversial Section 57, is likely to be placed before the cabinet meeting today, Monday.

ICT secretary Subir Kishore Choudhury confirmed this to Prothom Alo.

In the face of widespread criticism from different quarters, the government has decided to abolish Section 57 of the ICT act.

According to the proposed Digital Security Act, once the draft act will come into effect, the sections 54, 55, 56, 57 and 66 of the ICT act will stand abolished.

But for all practical purposes, the much-criticised Section 57 is not going to be abolished as the “crimes” defined by the much-criticised Section 57 of the ICT act is being kept in the Digital Security Act in one way or the other.

The draft of the Digital Security Act shows that the crimes as defined by the Section 57 has been divided and kept separately in four sections of the Digital Security Act.

With this, the draft of the Constitution (17th amendment) Act 2018 is also likely to be placed before the cabinet meeting in order to keep the seats reserved for women for 20 years in parliament.