India has been sleeping over crucial cyber issues like strong cyber law, effective cyber security and adequate cyber forensics capabilities. Further, industrial lobbying has kept the genuine national interests at far distance and introduced elements of commercial interests for the benefits of few.Naturally, Parliament of India has not acted the way it was supposed to act in these crucial areas. The Parliament of India must scrap the cyber law of India i.e. information technology act, 2000 and enact an apt law that serves national interest rather than commercial interests of few big industrial players of India.
Besides the “inherent cyber criminals friendly weaknesses” of Cyber Law of India, it has also eliminated the chances of having good alternative dispute resolution mechanism through the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT), says Praveen Dalal, Supreme Court Lawyers and Managing Partner of Perry4Law. Neither E-Courts nor Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) can be established and survive within the present Legal Framework of IT Act, 2000, warns Praveen Dalal.
Besides having virtually no legal framework for establishment of E-Courts in India and use of ODR for Dispute Resolution of Cyber Contraventions under the IT Act, 2000, even the National Litigation Policy of India (NLPI) has failed to consider E-Courts and ODR as effective methods of Speedy Trial and Judicial Reforms, says Praveen Dalal.
No wonder, we are waiting for the establishment of first e-court in India even till December 2010 and there is no use of ODR in India. The tenure of e-court committee of India has already expired and even the empowered committee of department of justice has not been constituted till now.
The worst in this situation that government of India can do is to entrust the responsibility of establishment of e-courts in India to industrial bodies and associations and their partners. Law Minister Veerappa Moily must urgently step in to salvage the situation that has already become very worst.
