Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act, 2016 — Section 13: Electronic forgery

13. Electronic forgery.— (1) Whoever interferes with or uses any information system, device or data, with the intent to cause damage or injury to the public or to any person, or to make any illegal claim or title or to cause any person to part with property or to enter into any express or implied contract, or with intent to commit fraud by any input, alteration, deletion, or suppression of data, resulting in unauthentic data with the intent that it be considered or acted upon for legal purposes as if it were authentic, regardless of the fact that the data is directly readable and intelligible or not, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to three years, or with fine which may extend to two hundred and fifty thousand rupees or with both.

(2)Whoever commits offence under sub-section (1) in relation to a critical infrastructure information system or data shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to seven years or with fine which may extend to five million rupees or with both.