Legislative History of Information Technology Act -2000 (ITA
2000)
The legal history of ITA 2000 starts with the draft of E-Commerce Act 1998
made available some time in 1998 based on the UNCITRAL Model law on
E-Commerce. Now with the passage of the Information Technology Act 2000
Amendment Bill in December 2008, the legislation has reached a significant
stage in the development of Cyber Laws in India. During this journey,
Naavi.org has been taking several steps towards disseminating information
on the law through the website. These are collated in this section.
When the draft of E-Commerce Act 1998 became
available on the net for the first time, Naavi was the first to take it up
for public debate. The draft was put up on Naavi's website (naavi.com
which is now being squatted) inviting public comment.
Naavi also collated public comments through
Netizen's Fourm to
provide their suggestions which was
then be sent to the Government of India for further action.
Naavi also wrote a book which became the first book on
the subject in India so that some of the aspects of the Bill could be
explained. (A free
e-archive of the book is available here)
When the amendments were proposed in 2005 after the
Gurgaon-Karan Bahree case and baazee.com episode, Naavi had again
submitted recommendations
for amendments.
When the final suggestions came from the "Expert
Committee" constituted for the purpose of recommending the amendments, it
was a shocker. Naavi again took upon the mission to educate the masses
about the "Criminal Friendly" legislation sought to be passed. For some
time the recommendations were put in cold storage.
However, this year after another Gurgaon BPO Case
hitting the headlines, the proposed amendments have again been taken out
of the cold storage and passed through the Cabinet Committee. It will be
placed in the Parliament any time in November-December 2006.
At this point of time Naavi has again tried to place
before the public his concerns on the proposed amendments which are
contained in this section of the website.
Naavi
November 1, 2006
The Information Technology Act -2000 Amendment Bill was
introduced in the Parliament on December 15, 2006. This was called the
Information Technology Act Amendment Bill 2006. (ITAA 2006). This was also
passed by the Cabinet Committee. However a standing committee of the
Parliament under the chairmanship of Mr Nikhil Kumar
aborted the final clearance with an emphatic rejection of many of the
controversial propositions which Naavi.org had been pointing out for
nearly two years. The Bill was therefore returned to the department of
changes.
November, 1 2007
It is understood that the Ministry of Communications
and Information Technology (MCIT) has prepared a new draft of the
Information Technology Act 2000 Amendment Bill 2006 and will be tabling it
in the next winter session of the parliament between
October 17 to November 21, 2008. We hope that
MCIT is addressing the concerns expressed by the Standing Committee while
rejecting the bill at the first instance.
September 01, 2008
The Information Technology Act
2000 Amendment Bill is expected to be
presented in the session starting on December 10th. In the meantime, the
Mumbai terror attacks on 26th November has introduced a sense of urgency
to amendments which address the issue of "Cyber Terrorism".
(See comments
here)
December 05, 2008
The Information Technology Act
2000 Amendment Bill was presented in the
Parliament on 15th December 2008, passed in Loksabha on 22nd and in
Rajyasabha on 23rd. There were no debates in either of the houses which
were completely engrossed in the discussions around Mr A R Antulay's
remarks on Mumbai terrorist attack. The Bill needs to get the Presidential
assent and has to be notified. An analysis of the final Bill as passed
would be presented when the copy of the Bill as passed is available in the
public domain.
A Copy of the standing
committee report which records the deliberations is
available here.
December 23,2008
The copies of ITA
2008 along with section to section comparison with ITA 2000 and ITA 2006
are now available on this site. This has been constructed out of ITA 2000
(as amended earlier upto 2003), the
Information technology Amendment Bill 2006 presented in the Parliament
on 15th December 2006, and the
deliberations in Loksabha on December 22, 2008. Use the links in the left menu.
These are the first copies of these documents available in India.
The MCIT website also does not have current copies of ITA 2000 or the
amendments. In
case you find mistakes, please inform naavi@naavi.org. We await information
on Presidential assent and further rules and notifications.
December 26, 2008
ITA Amendment Bill 2008 was
signed into an Act by the President on 5th February 2009, through a
Gazette
Notification
February 5, 2009
Current Status of ITA 2000
Amendments:
Government of India is
now in the process of framing the rules which are required under the
amendments. On completion of this exercise, the date of effect of the
amendments would be notified. It is expected that this may be completed by
end of June 2009. Draft Rules are available presently
here.
ITA 2008 Notified
After a long wait, finally the
Information technology Amendment act 2008 has been notified for
effectiveness with effect from October 27, 2009. As per the
PIB release the notification covers rules pertaining to sections
52,54,69,69A,69B, and 70B has been notified. These relate to the Cyber
Appellate Tribunal and CERT related provisions. These are the first
notifications under the Amendment. We await further information and a copy
of the Gazette notification for understanding the full impact of the
notification.
Copy of the Gazette
Notification is available here.
October 27, 2009
New Rules Notified
Rules were notified under
Sections 43A (Sensitive Personal information), 79 (intermediaries),
Cyber Cafe Regulations (also under Sec 79) and Section 6A (Electronic
Service Delivery) on April 11, 2011.
( All
rules are available here)
April 11, 2011
Clarification on New Data
Protection Rules
GOI provided some
clarifications on Sec 43A rules issued on 11th April 2011 essentially
indicating that the responsibility for obtaining "Consent" would be on
the body corporate that deals with the persons whose information is
being collected. Similarly it was clarified that under Section 79, the
interpretation of objectionable content would be left to the Courts.
Refer here
August 24, 2011
Removal of Section 66A
After several arrests made
by Police for posting of objectionable content on Facebook and Twitter,
the Supreme Court considered the constitutional validity of Section 66A
regarding whether the section violated the principles of Freedom of
Speech guaranteed by the Indian Constitution. Simultaneously the
validity of Section 79(3) under which intermediaries were required to
remove objectionable content as well as the provisions of Section 69A on
the powers of the Government to block websites were also considered. The
Supreme Court came to the conclusion that Section 66A was violative of
the Constitution under article 19(1) and upheld the validity of the
other two sections with a read down of Section 79(3).
Refer here for details
March 24, 2015
Privacy and Data
Protection
Amendments to ITA 2000 made
in 2008 with rules notified in 2009 and 2011 were considered as
reasonable regulations for Data Protection until the historic judgement
of a Nine Member bench of Supreme Court on Privacy (Puttaswamy Judgement)
declared "Privacy to be a fundamental right" under the Indian
Constitution. Since this judgement on 24th August 2017, there was a
clamour for "Privacy Laws in India" with specific reference to laws
related to Information Privacy. The Personal Data Protection Act 2018 (PDPA
2018) was introduced in draft form of the bill on 27th July 2018 marking
a landmark legislation that will transform the digital regulatory
landscape in India.
July 27, 2018
P.S:PDPA 2018 was replaced first by PDPB 2019 and
DPA 2021 and now the DPDPB 2022
Second Awakening
On December 20, 2018 the
Ministry of Home Affairs released an order designating 10 agencies under
Section 69. A hue and cry has been raised by the political opposition
that this order is an attempt at Mass Surveillance etc., While we hold
that the charges are misplaced, (Refer
articles here), the controversy has raised awareness of the
existence of Section 69 which dates back to 27th October 2009. We call
this the second awakening since the first awakening of the society to
the existence of ITA 2000 occurred when the Section 43A rules were
notified on 11th April 2011.
The controversy over Section
69 has quickly been followed by another controversy surrounding the
proposed amendment to the Intermediary Guidelines under Section 79. This
also is a routine order in the interest of tackling the menace of fake
news in Social media but has been projected as an assault on freedom of
speech. (Refer
our views here).
Both controversies are being
referred to the Supreme Court also as "unconstitutional" and we need to
await the outcome.
December 31, 2018
Finally..the New Intermediary Guidelines 2021
The December 2018 draft guidelines got revised
further in 2021 following the Twitter's response to disregard the
Section 69 Guideline issued by the Government and along with the Ethical
Digital Media Guidelines, a new guideline was issued and was also
immediately notified on 25th February 2021.
February 25, 2021
Excluded Documents under Schedule I modified
On October 4th, 2022 through a notification the documents
related to "sale or conveyance of imovable propery or any interest
in such propery" has been removed from the list of excluded
documents. In view of this now lease agreements can be signed in
electronic form. Immovable property sale or partition deeds may also
be executed in electronic form.
Refer here for details October 4, 2022
Intermediary Guidlines Amended
The Intermediary guidelines and Digital media
Ethics Code Rules 2021 of February 25 2021 was amended to
define the "Grievance Appellate Committee" envisaged under the rules
Refer here for details:
October 28, 2022
A Bill titled
Jan Viswas (Amendments of Provisions) Bill 2022
has been introduced in the Parliament to amend several provisions of
ITA 2000/8 to decriminalize some offences. Details are available
here: In these amendments Section 66A has been
formally deleted. Civil penalties have been increased in many
sections. Criminal punishments have been deleted in Sections
67C,68,69B,72,72A, reduced under 70B. (Bill to be passed)
December 23, 2022
The Minister of State, MeitY launched a public consultation
program on the Digital India Act 2023 with a broad outline. (Refer
here)
9th March 2023
The Intermediary Guidlines were updated with
the regulations of online gaming industry and a consolidated
guideline copy was released
(Copy here)
6th April 2023