October 17, 2000 will be an important day in the e-history of India (and the History of India as well). This was the day when India entered the “Digital Contract Era” with the notification of the Rules under the Information Technology Act 2000. With this, the story which began with the drafting of the E-Commerce Act 98 reached a decisive stage where Electronic Documents and Digital Signatures became as valid as paper documents and written signatures.

It was in December 1999 that the Information Technology Bill 99 was presented in the Parliament by the Honourable Minister of Information Technology Mr Pramod Mahajan. He had then assured that the Bill would be passed in the same session or immediately in the next session. However the Bill was referred to a select Parliament committee which promptly went to sleep with it. Finally there was a sudden awakening in May 2000 and the standing committee presented an amended form of the Bill on May 14th.  After a quick round of discussions with NASSCOM, the Bill was passed on May 17 and got the Presidential assent soon after, on June 9th. In all this hurry the Act got passed with glaring mistakes.  However without the notification of the accompanying “Rules”, the Act could not come into existence. 

Finally it was announced that the Act would come to effect on August 15th and the Prime Minister would release the first digitally signed document during his Independence Day speech from Redfort. At this time, the Rules were yet to be announced and Controller yet to be appointed. Therefore was therefore no way, a valid Digital signature was possible to be issued. As experts wondered whether it would be a mock signature with a demo software, the proposal was dropped and the Government came out with a draft copy of Rules and posted it on the website of Ministry of Information Technology for public comments. It also called for public suggestions on the person to be appointed as the “Controller”. While the attempt to be transparent about the Rules and the appointment was something to be appreciated, the “Rules” itself made one gasp with disbelief.  While it did not help clarify or correct the errors observed in the Act, it introduced many more bizarre provisions over ruling the parent Act itself.

naavi.org which was the prime Cyber Law Portal in India had been following the developments since around October 1999, when the draft copies of the E-Commerce Act –1998 was put up on the site for public discussion. Naavi then proceeded to publish the book  “Cyber Laws for Every Netizen in India” with a view to build an awareness on the proposed IT Bill. The book hit the stands simultaneously with the presentation of the IT Bill in the Parliament in December 1999. Since then naavi.org  has been keenly following all the developments in the field of Cyber Laws in India. Many of the suggestions made by naavi.org to the Ministry for correction of the mistakes in the Act as well as improving the utility of the Act to the community of Netizens in India went down the drain and when the Rules were notified on August 15 th, naavi.org was forced to mobilize a part of the Netizen community into a “Netizen’s Forum for Credible Cyber Society”, which submitted a detailed memorandum to the Ministry suggesting many changes to the Rules and the Act. 

Some of the suggestions made by the Netizen’s forum have been reflected in the amended rules which have now been notified and the Forum thanks the Government for their responsiveness.

However, in pursuance of its motto “Let’s Build a Responsible Cyber Society”, naavi.org and the Netizen’s forum would continue to work towards further improvement of the legislation. It is desired that the Netizen’s Forum would work as the “Watch dog” from the Netizen’s side to spread the awareness of the Cyber Laws in India and create a strong body of “Netizens of India” to continue its service to the Cyber society in India. 

Towards this end, naavi.org has already promoted www.cyberlawcollege.com which is conducting an online Certificate course in Cyber Laws at a very nominal cost for all netizens. naavi.org along with the Netizen’s Forum is also trying to mobilize the industry towards the setting up of a “CERT” in India.  

With the ushering in of the Digital Contract Era in India, the activities of naavi.org will enter an important new phase with an intensification of its efforts as the prime private enterprise in India dedicated to the development of a “Responsible Cyber Society”. In this “Journey with a purpose”, I thank all those who have been a source of inspiration to  me and look forward to their continued cooperation, encouragement and active support in making naavi.org a “Netizen’ s Movement”.

Na.Vijayashankar
October 19, 2000