Abstract
India’s cybercrime framework, under the Information Technology Act 2000, is marked by a gap between national policy design and state-level enforcement. While the existing literature primarily examines legislative provisions, this paper delves into how the national cyber law actually functions within India’s federal structure, focusing on the critical divergence between de jure design and de facto enforcement outcomes. This paper unpacks this implementation gap with the example of Kerala. It is a state characterized by high literacy (94 per cent, as against the all-India literacy rate of 74.04 per cent) and high digital penetration yet plagued by an abysmally low conviction rate (of 5.4 per cent) for cybercrimes (as of 2009–2019), significantly below the national average of 27.1 per cent. This study uses a mixed-methods design, combining doctrinal legal analysis, a quantitative examination of the Kerala Police cybercrime data (for 2009–2019), and qualitative insights from surveys of 300 end users, and 50 law enforcement officials. Its findings reveal that enforcement failures are driven by institutional fragmentation and exacerbated by federal tensions and a striking lack of public awareness. Critically, the limited technical capacity of the state police force is a major bottleneck, with 94 per cent of officers agreeing that cybercrime investigation methodologies are still in their infancy. Addressing the gap requires better governance, strengthened state capacity (including advanced forensics training), improved centre-state coordination, and targeted digital literacy campaigns to foster informed citizens and empowered institutions capable of ensuring justice in cyberspace.
Recommended Citation
Narayana Swamy, Raju
(2026)
"Mind the Gap: An Empirical Analysis of India's National Cybercrime Framework and Its State-Level Implementation in Kerala,"
Journal of Law and Public Policy: Vol. 9:
Iss.
2, Article 1.
Available at:
https://repository.nls.ac.in/jlpp/vol9/iss2/1