Expert committee to review Information Technology Act

(As reported in The Hindu of January 8, 2005)

NEW DELHI, JAN. 7. The Government has set up an expert committee for an in-depth review of the Information Technology Act, 2000.

The recent episode of selling of a pornographic MMS clip on an internet portal — which led to the arrest of the chief executive of the portal — is among the major reasons behind the move to review the Act.

Set up by the Department of Information Technology, the committee will be headed by its Secretary, Brijesh Kumar, and include A.K. Chakravarty, a senior scientist with the Department; Kiran Karnik, president of Nasscom; A. K. Singh and Vaku Sharma, advocates; Ajay Chowdhry, Chairman of HCL Infosystems; Ajit Balakrishnan, CEO Rediff and R. Ramraj, CEO Sify Limited. M. Madhavan Nambiar, Joint Secretary in the Department of Information Technology, will be the member-secretary.

Cyber security

The committee, which is to submit its report within six weeks, has been asked to re-examine the Act to ensure that it remained an enabler for development of information and communication technology.

Adequate measures for promoting growth of electronic commerce and governance and for regulating cyber crimes and cyber forensics are to be the other focal points.

The committee will also see whether the Act addresses all aspects of cyber security in a manner that there is no scope for different interpretations and follows the international guidelines for uniformity.

The committee will also consider the recommendations made by the inter-ministerial working group on cyber laws and cyber forensics and finalise the amendments to the Act.

Legislation for data protection (privacy) and consideration of the feasibility of making the Act technology neutral are among the terms of reference.

Feedback and suggestions received by the Government will be considered for suitable amendments to the Act.

Regulation of cyber cafes and blocking of websites and consideration of India signing the European Cyber Crimes Treaty will also be covered.

An official note said the need for setting up of the committee was felt due to deficiencies noticed and suggestions received for further improvement from professional bodies, institutions and other stakeholders.