A Statute Stranded In Time: IRWA, The IT Act, And The Regulation Of Online Gender-Based Harm, Evidence From Maharashtra
- IJLLR Journal
- Jul 7
- 1 min read
Raghav Golhani & S.K. Deshmukh, Maharashtra National Law University, Nagpur
ABSTRACT
This paper examines the interface between the Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act, 1986 and the Information Technology Act, 2000 in addressing cyber-enabled gender-based violence against women in Maharashtra. It situates IRWA in its original print-media context and demonstrates how the rapid expansion of social media, image morphing, deepfakes, cyberstalking, and online sexual harassment has exposed the doctrinal and technological limits of a pre-digital statute. Using NCRB data from 2019 to 2023, parliamentary records and data, NCRP complaint data, and a comparative analysis of statutory definitions and punishment structures, the study documents rising cybercrime figures and demonstrates that complaints involving obscene or sexually explicit online content are now overwhelmingly registered under IT Act provisions, especially sections 67 and 67A, and BNS provisions, with IRWA playing only a marginal, supplementary role. The paper argues that while IRWA remains normatively important for its gender-specific focus on women’s dignity, it is operationally obsolete for cyberspace unless substantially amended and harmonized with the IT Act. The study critically engages with existing scholarship, including the paper by Gurjalwar and Dixit published in the Indian Journal of Law and Legal Research, Volume VII Issue I, to identify gaps in the prior literature that this paper addresses through state-specific empirical analysis. The study concludes by proposing legal and institutional reforms, including digital amendments to IRWA, convergence mechanisms between IRWA and the IT Act, a specific deepfake offence, and enforcement improvements for Maharashtra.
Keywords: IRWA, Information Technology Act, Cybercrime Against Women, Maharashtra, Digital Gender-Based Violence, Legal Obsolescence, BNS 2023.
