Section 185 - Insertion of new section 15HAA. - Finance (No. 2) Act, 2019

Insertion of new section 15HAA. 185. After section 15HA of the principal Act, the following section shall be inserted, namely:- Penalty for alteration, destruction, etc., of records and failure to protect the electronic database of Board. 15HAA. Any person, who- (a) knowingly alters, destroys, mutilates, conceals, falsifies, or makes a false entry in any information, record, document (including electronic records), which is required under this Act or any rules or regulations made thereunder, so as to impede, obstruct, or influence the investigation, inquiry, audit, inspection or proper administration of any matter within the jurisdiction of the Board. Explanation .- For the purposes of this clause, a person shall be deemed to have altered, concealed or destroyed such information, record or document, in case he knowingly fails to immediately report the matter to the Board or fails to preserve the same till such information continues to be relevant to any investigation, inquiry, audit, inspection or proceeding, which may be initiated by the Board and conclusion thereof; (b) without being authorised to do so, access or tries to access, or denies of access or modifies access parameters, to the regulatory data in the database; (c) without being authorised to do so, downloads, extracts, copies, or reproduces in any form the regulatory data maintained in the system database; (d) knowingly introduces any computer virus or other computer contaminant into the system database and brings out a trading halt; (e) without authorisation disrupts the functioning of system database; (f) knowingly damages, destroys, deletes, alters, diminishes in value or utility, or affects by any means, the regulatory data in the system database; or (g) knowingly provides any assistance to or causes any other person to do any of the acts specified in clauses (a) to (f), shall be liable to a penalty which shall not be less than one lakh rupees but which may extend to ten crore rupees or three times the amount of profits made out of such act, whichever is higher. Explanation .-In this section, the expressions computer contaminant , computer virus and damage shall have the meanings respectively assigned to them under section 43 of the Information Technology Act, 2000. (21 of 2000.)