Artificial Intelligence and Cyber Crime: Adequacy of the Indian Legal Framework

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has emerged as a powerful technological force reshaping digital governance, economic activity, and social interaction. However, its rapid integration into cyberspace has simultaneously intensified the scale, speed, and sophistication of cybercrimes. This paper critically examines the adequacy of the Indian legal framework in addressing cybercrimes enabled by Artificial Intelligence. It analyses emerging AI-driven cyber threats such as deepfake fraud, automated phishing, algorithmic impersonation, and autonomous cyber-attacks, which challenge traditional notions of criminal intent, liability, and enforcement. The study evaluates the effectiveness of existing statutes, particularly the Information Technology Act, 2000, allied penal laws, and the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, in responding to these novel threats. It highlights significant gaps arising from the absence of AI-specific offence definitions, unclear attribution of criminal liability among developers and users, and limited enforcement capacity. The paper also explores constitutional implications, especially the right to privacy as recognised in Justice K. S. Puttaswamy v. Union of India, underscoring the need to balance cybercrime control with fundamental rights. The study concludes that India’s cyber law regime remains largely reactive and inadequate, advocating targeted legislative reforms, institutional strengthening, and AI-sensitive governance mechanisms to ensure a future-ready and constitutionally compliant cybercrime framework.