Saturday, May 2, 2009

Cyber Law And Cyber Security In India

The elections fever is gripping India but there seems to be no efforts regarding streamlining legal enablement of ICT systems in India. Cyber law in India is weak, cyber security missing and cyber forensics capabilities non-existent.

The Parliament of India passed the Information Technology Amendment Bill, 2008 (Bill 2008) without any debate or discussion. All laws, including the Bill, 2008, are prima facie unconstitutional but neither our Judiciary nor the President of India found any problems with that. The Bill 2008 got President’s approval on 5th February, 2009 without the President even thinking once about its ill effects. Except Mr. Praveen Dalal none seems to have protested about this situation. Fortunately, as a result of this the proposed Bill 2008 seems to have been definitely “withdrawn”.

Even judges of Indian Supreme Court have shown their dissatisfaction with the existing cyber law of India. All these developments have even forced the officers of the government of India to admit that the Bill 2008 requires further refinement and strength. IT Secretary Jainder Singh had declared that the ministry would shortly come up with fresh regulations to be added to Bill 2008 as there was criticism that the bill takes little care of the identified issues.

Similarly, cyber security in India and cyber forensics in India are also missing. The government must not only enact a sound cyber law but also establish cyber security and cyber forensics capabilities. The government must also train judiciary, lawyers, police officers, intelligence agencies, etc in this regard. It is high time that India must do something regarding these aspects.

AUTHOR: RAM K KAUSHIK

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