Saturday, November 21, 2009

India Calling For Information Technology Amendment Act 2009

BY

Cyber law of India is contained in the Information Technology Act, 2000 (IT Act, 2000). The same has been amended by the Information Technology Amendment Act, 2008 (IT Act 2008). However, due to lack of insight and good provisions it has been criticized by many cyber law observers. In fact, Praveen Dalal, Managing Partner of Perry4Law and the leading Techno-Legal Expert of India has also criticized it on many counts.

Realising the urgency of the situation, union minister for law and justice M Veerappa Moily has also in the past said that the government would bring in amendments to Information Technology and Extradition Act to make them more effective in tackling cyber crime.

It seems that now even the IT Industry has shown its consent and approval for the suggestions of Praveen Dalal regarding bringing suitable amendments in the IT Act 2000. Recently, a national conference on the theme of ‘Information Management, Computing and Security’ (IMCS’09) was organized. Speaking on this occasion, A.N. Shastry, Associate Vice President, Infosys said that the IT Act passed by the Indian government in the year 2000 needs to be revised.

It is surprising that despite so many protests and objections, the government of India gave a green signal to the IT Act 2008. It is high time to amend the IT Act 2000 and this time properly and effectively. There is no scope for making the IT Act 2000 a weak and impotent piece of legislation when it come to cyber crimes as has been done by the IT Act 2008.