The Supreme Court has clarified that a computer-related offence punishable under Section 66 of the Information Technology Act, 2000 is a bailable offence.

A bench of Justice M.M. Sundresh and Justice Prasanna B. Varale set aside the Punjab & Haryana High Court's judgment, which had treated a Section 66 offence as a non-bailable offence.

“…the view expressed by High Court that Section 66 of the IT Act has not been defined as a bailable offence under the IT Act, stands set aside.”, observed a bench, while emphasizing that the High Court erred in not taking into consideration Section 77B of the IT Act, which treats offences punishable up to three years imprisonment as a bailable offence.

The Court noted that since Section 66 prescribes a punishment up to three years, when read with Section 77B, the true nature of the offence treats it as a bailable offence.

Background

The case arose after an alleged illegal detention of an Appellant's son at an airport pursuant to a look out circular issued against him in connection with a FIR registered for an offence punishable under Sections 66, 72 and 84-C of the Information Technology Act, 2000 (for short, 'the IT Act') and Section 78(1)(ii) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023.

The Appellant filed a Habeas Corpus petition before the High Court. However, the High Court, while disposing of the Writ, prima facie noted that the offence punishable under Section 66 is non-bailable, leading to an appeal before the Supreme Court on this limited aspect.

Setting aside the High Court's observation, the Court said:

“In our considered view, the High Court did not take into consideration Section 77B of the IT Act, which has to be read to ascertain the nature of offence provided under Section 66 of the IT Act.”

In terms of the aforesaid, the plea was disposed of.

Cause Title: MAHARAJ SARAN VERSUS STATE OF PUNJAB & ORS.

Citation : 2026 LiveLaw (SC) 707

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Appearance:

For Petitioner(s) Mr. Abhinay, AOR Ms. Ritu Punj, Adv. Ms. Deepti Sarin, Adv. Mr. Kartik Rajpurohit, Adv.

For Respondent(s) Mr. Karan Sharma, AOR Mr. Mohit Siwach, Adv. Mr. Suryaprakash V. Raju, A.S.G. Mr. Zoheb Hussain, Adv. Mr. Annam Venkatesh, Adv. Mr. Kanu Agrawal, Adv. Mr. Saurav Roy, Adv. Mr. Rajeshwari Shankar, Adv. Ms. Vidushi Pandey, Adv. Mr. Yogesh Vats, Adv. Dr. N. Visakamurthy, AOR