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 In fact, experts have been demanding that cyber law of India should be repealed and new and better laws must be enacted.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.

Social Media Laws In India

Social media laws in India are in limelight these days. Social media websites are very popular among technology savvy as well as ordinary Netizens. More and more Netizens are joining social platforms to share their opinions, views, data and details. However, social networking laws in India are not adequate and properly drafted.

Social media includes social networking sites, blogs, forums, wikis, etc. Social media is growingly seen as a medium to connect with millions of professionals, friends and like minded individuals and organisations.

India is also witnessing a growing revolution of information and communication technology (ICT) and social media usage. However, till now we have no social media policy in India. Even we do not have dedicated social networking laws in India that can take care of the misuses of social platforms.

However, the framework and guidelines for use of social media for government organisations has been recently suggested by department of information technology. Theses guidelines provide an Indian social media framework for governmental departments and organisations that employees of these organisations must follow.

Perry4Law and Perry4Law Techno Legal Base (PTLB) strongly recommend that Indian government must enact strong and effective social media laws, e-governance laws and e-commerce laws in India. These three fields are going to assume centre stage in the near future and their regulation by Indian government would be required.

Till now India has enacted a single technology law in the form of information technology act 2000 (IT Act 2000). It has tried to cover all the three issues but not with great success. This is so because these three fields are very vast and require a different treatment and separate law. Perry4Law and PTLB strongly recommend enacting suitable laws in this regard.

Legal Framework For E-Governance In India

Electronic governance in India (e-governance in India) is still at its infancy stage. Most of the e-governance projects of India under the national e-governance plan (NEGP) are still in the pipeline despite the deadline being passed long before. This is despite the fact that thousand of crores of public money has already been utilised for e-governance projects of India but without any constructive and practical results.

Meanwhile, the World Bank has once again issued $ 150 million loan to India. It has been issued under the category of e-delivery of public services development policy loan of India. The purpose of the loan is to ensure e-services delivery policy in India that is presently missing.

However, what is more alarming is the fact that in India we have no Indian legal framework for e-governance that can ensure mandatory e-governance services in India. Although the information technology act 2000 carries provisions pertaining to e-governance services in India yet they are “non mandatory and retrograde” in nature. This has resulted in a poor e-governance services delivery in India. Till now we have no legal framework that mandates that citizens and organisations can claim e-governance as a matter of right.

Further, the scope of NEGP is very wide covering almost all aspects of governance - right from delivery of services and provision of information to business process re-engineering within the different levels of government and its institutions. It is essential that NGP is implemented, monitored and regulated through a legal framework so that it is no more just a plan but reality.

In fact, while implementing the NEGP, various structural and institutional issues have already arisen which clearly call for a statutory mandate for their resolution. The purpose would be to give statutory mandate to the institutional entities, setting up of a separate fund, defining responsibilities and providing for time frames and oversight mechanisms. Thus, this legislation may, inter alia, contain provisions regarding the following:

(a) Definition of e-governance in the Indian context, its objectives and role,

(b) Coordination and oversight mechanisms, support structures at various levels, their functions and responsibilities,

(c) Role, functions and responsibilities of government organisations at various levels,

(d) Mechanism for financial arrangements including public-private partnership,

(e) Specifying the requirements of a strategic control framework for e-government projects dealing with statutory and sovereign functions of the government,

(f) Responsibility for selection and adoption of standards and inter-operability framework,

(g) Framework for cyber security, privacy protection, data security and data protection etc.
(h) Parliamentary oversight mechanism, and

(i) Mechanism for co-ordination between government organisations at Union and State levels.