Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Cyber Law Of India Is A Piecemeal Effort

Cyber law of India is enacted in the form of information technology act 2000 (IT Act 2000). It was enacted more than 10 years before and was a good law keeping in mind the first attempt of India in this regard.

However, with the passage of time India became indifferent towards its cyber law. Only in the year 2008 India enacted the information technology amendment act, 2008 (IT Act 2008) that was made enforceable in 2009.

This was the worst decision for the cyber law of India. Almost all the cyber crimes were made bailable. India was made a cyber criminals friendly country that is a safe heaven for cyber criminals word over.

Further, the primary aim of the IT Act 2000 regarding e-governance and e-commerce is no more viable within the present cyber law framework of India. The sole purpose of the present cyber law is to strengthen the illegal and unconstitutional e-surveillance and phone tapping powers of Indian government and its agencies.

Now recently Mr. Kapil Sibal showed his intentions to formulate rules under the IT Act 2000. What is frustrating is the manner in which the cyber law of India has been handled. According to Praveen Dalal, Supreme Court Lawyer and leading techno legal Expert of India, we do not need a piece meal legislation but a “Comprehensive Cyber Law”. It is high time for the Parliament of India to seriously take Indian Cyber Law, opines Praveen Dalal.

Instead of working upon the limited set of rules, department of information and communication technology in general and Mr. Kapil Sibal in particular must work in the direction of formulating a comprehensive, effective and strong cyber law of India.