I refer to the problems in Net4India partially ceasing its activities discussed here through our earlier articles.
The refusal of the domain registrar to allow transfer of domain to another registrar is a problem of Consumers of domain name service which should be addressed through the Consumer Courts under the Consumer Protection Act.
I had requested for transfer of my domains namely cyberlawcollege.net, cyberlawguru.in and pdpsi.in to another registrar though they are not presently due for renewal.
However my other registrar has expressed his inability to transfer in the absence of the Authorization Code from the earlier domain registrar. This is a constraint imposed by ICANN in their procedures.
In my case the problem is compounded because the e-mail of the registrant registered was at vsnl.com address which Tatas have now stopped servicing. Net4India is not able to make any changes in the e-mail address.
Both Vsnl.com (Now owned by Tatas) as well as Net4India are service providers who were providing services to customers in India because of the ICANN having given them the license. The Indian Government is a party to this arrangement since they have the overall responsibility for managing the Internet Governance system. NIXI is specifically provided the authority to deal with the dot in domain names.
Now the problems consumers are facing with Net4India has exposed the deficiency in service of ICANN, Net4India, VSNL (now taken over by Tatas) and The Ministry of IT, Government of India.
There are many lawyers in Delhi who raise PILs for many irrelevant things. The Supreme Court is also pleased to take any anti Government PIL even if it is an interference of the normal Governance function provided to the executive.
The problem now posed by Net4India to domain name consumers is a matter which directly affects the Freedom of Expression, causes a denial of acccess, besides large number of people losing money. This is a far more serious issue than many other issues for which the PIL lawyers are able to get the Supreme Court act even under the COVID lock down conditions.
The Supreme Court also takes up certain cases on Suo Moto basis. Many times PILs are admitted even when the interest represented is of the elite or on the basis of religion or for political reasons or even if it is related to a Vikas Dubey the notorious criminal or the terrorists.
This is now a test for PIL advocates of Delhi as well as the Supreme Court.
Will they recognize the public interest inherent in this instance and make ICANN clean up their domain name registration system?…
Will they pull up companies like Net4India and Tatas who discontinue critical services without proper winding down of operations?
Will they make the Government or NIXI type of agencies of the Government to think of how to resolve such issues through notifications and advisories?
We await answers…
Naavi
