Saturday, December 31, 2011

Cyber Laws In India

Cyber laws in India are very much required especially to manage the culpable dealings of big corporate houses. IT frauds and cyber crimes in Indian companies are increasing at a great speed. Currently there is no cyber due diligence for Indian companies that has been mandatorily provided by the Indian Companies Act, 1956.

The Information Technology Act, 2000 (IT Act 2000) is the sole cyber law of India. The companies in India are required to follow cyber law due diligence in India and cyber security due diligence in India. In the absence of proper due diligence these companies may find themselves in trouble.

Indian companies are neither prepared nor willing to deal with these sophisticated technology crimes and organised crimes. Recently the companies bill 2011 was tabled in lok sabha that carried few reformatory provisions in this regard. It was planned to give more powers to serious frauds investigation office (SFIO) of India. Under the proposed companies bill 2011, SFIO had been given a statutory recognition. However, the bill failed to become law and the position still remains gloomy.

Cyber crimes in India are increasing unchecked. However, efforts to curb the same are still far from satisfactory. In fact, by making almost all the cyber crimes and cyber contraventions under the IT Act 2000 bailable, Indian government has further complicated the situation. In fact, experts have been demanding that cyber law of India should be repealed and new and better laws must be enacted.

We need separate and dedicated legal frameworks in India. For instance, e-commerce laws in India, social media laws in India, e-governance laws in India, cyber security laws in India, cyber forensics laws in India, e-discovery laws in India, digital evidencing laws in India, etc must be enacted separately.

In short, cyber law of India must be given an importance that it deserves. Presently, it is given a piecemeal treatment that is not conducive for its long term growth in India.