The cabinet on Monday gave final approval to the draft ‘Cyber Security Act, 2023’. Discussions are ongoing on approving the draft law without consulting stakeholders. In this context, Law Minister Anisul Haque mentioned the matter while talking to the journalists on Tuesday and said that the proposed cyber security act will be discussed in the parliamentary standing committee.
He said that ‘the parliament session has been convened on September 3. The final approval of the cabinet was taken yesterday so that the parliament can go into session. He said, of course, the parties will be called in the parliamentary committee and the proposed law will be discussed’.
In response to a question, the Law Minister said that the opinions given by the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology have been taken into consideration and will be taken further.
The Law Minister said that all the views which have been given in the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology (after giving the draft on the website) will be presented to the parliamentary committee together. Those who want to speak, are given an opportunity to speak in the parliamentary committee. He said that he will be given the opportunity to speak like last time (while making the digital security act).
The minister also said that Section 14 of the Digital Security Act is non-bailable. The sections are 17, 19, 21, 22, 23, 24, 26, 27, 28, 30, 31, 32, 33 and 34. Eight sections of the draft Cyber Security Act were made bailable when it was given in-principle approval on August 7. These are Articles 22, 23, 24, 26, 28, 31, 32 and 34. And now at the time of final approval, new sections 21 and 30 have also been made bailable. The bailable sections in the proposed Act are 18 (1) (b), 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32 and 46. According to Law Minister Anisul Haque, the sentence has been reduced to 5 years under the newly made bailable section 21. However, the maximum fine of one crore taka has been kept as before. Under the Digital Security Act, the punishment under this section was imprisonment for a maximum of 10 years or a fine of up to 1 crore taka or both.