NAVIGATING THE DIGITAL BORDER: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF CROSS-JURISDICTIONAL HURDLES IN INDIA’S TRANSNATIONAL CYBERCRIME INVESTIGATIONS
AUTHOR – MANVENDRA SINGH* & MANEESH ADESH SRIVASTAVA**
* 2ND YEAR L.L.M. STUDENT AT RAMA UNIVERSITY, KANPUR
** ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, FACULTY OF JURIDICAL SCIENCES, RAMA UNIVERSITY, KANPUR.
BEST CITATION – MANVENDRA SINGH & MANEESH ADESH SRIVASTAVA, NAVIGATING THE DIGITAL BORDER: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF CROSS-JURISDICTIONAL HURDLES IN INDIA’S TRANSNATIONAL CYBERCRIME INVESTIGATIONS, INDIAN JOURNAL OF LEGAL REVIEW (IJLR), 6 (4) OF 2026, PG. 817-828, APIS – 3920 – 0001 & ISSN – 2583-2344.
Abstract
The digital technologies have been embraced exponentially, which has permanently transformed the environment of transnational crime, making the traditional Westphalian concept of territorial sovereignty more of a relic of the past. This research report is a comprehensive, doctrinal and comparative study of the cross-jurisdictional challenges bedeviling the law enforcement agencies in India when investigating and adjudicating transnational cybercrimes. This research helps to unravel the bewildering jurisdictional morass in contemporary digital investigations by critically analysing the very complicated interaction between the domestic legal systems of India, namely, the Information Technology Act, 2000, and the recent introduction of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, and the procedural requirements of the latter. The approach is mixed, a mixture of doctrinal and comparative, contrasting the Indian legal stance on the issue with the world standards, including the Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use of Data (CLOUD) Act of the United States, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) of the European Union, and the new United Nations Convention against Cybercrime of December 2024.
The results indicate that there is a clear epistemic tension between anarchic cyber criminality and territorially specific police. The existing cross-border digital evidence gathering methods, which are mainly Mutual Legal Assistance Treaties (MLATs), are structurally flawed and lack adequate bureaucratic momentum and legal inconsistency, including the notions of dual criminality and probable cause. The discussion shows that although the statutory framework in India is highly aggressive in asserting extraterritorial jurisdiction based on unilateral long-arm jurisdiction, the application of the law is still stalled by foreign blocking laws and complicated data localization requirements. In the end, the paper will conclude that the solution to such investigative bottlenecks is to ensure that India progresses to a stage of not relying on archaic MLAT, but rather negotiating bilateral executive agreements under the CLOUD Act and aligning its judicial oversight mechanisms with its Section 94 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, as well as a proactive manner of directing the norm-setting path of the newly formed UN Cybercrime Convention to ensure the protection of both digital sovereignty and fundamental rights.
Keywords
Digital Sovereignty, Transnational Cybercrime, Extraterritorial Jurisdiction, Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, CLOUD Act.