The Council of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), at its 329th (Adjourned) meeting held on 4th January, 2014, while taking note of various malicious emails being circulated in various fora has decided that:

The member(s) of ICAI should not host, display, upload, modify, publish, transmit, update, forward or share any information, in any form which is harmful, harassing, defamatory, indecent, immoral or invasive of another’s privacy, dignity or prestige or hateful, causing insult or injury or otherwise unlawful in any manner against the Institute and/ or its members. Further,

1.   Any member of ICAI, if found spreading such information, may invite disciplinary action under the Chartered Accountants Act, 1949. 

2.   Besides above, ICAI may also initiate appropriate legal proceedings against such members circulating malicious emails under the applicable provisions of the Information Technology Act, 2000 or under any other law for the time being in force. 

All the members of the ICAI are hereby advised to take note of the above decision of the Council.