Will Law Ministry Of India Wake Up Now?

Information Technology Amendment Act 2008 (IT Act 2008) has been kept in abeyance by the Central Government by not notifying it. A similar treatment has been given to the Criminal Procedure Code amendment by the government.

As per the latest news the Department of Information Technology (DIT) will refer the IT Act 2008 to the Law Ministry by the end of this month (i.e. 30th September 2009). The same is expected to be returned to DIT by the Law Ministry sometime in October 2009.

However, Praveen Dalal, the leading Techno-Legal Expert of India and Managing Partner of Perry4Law is of the opinion that the Law Ministry would commit a big mistake by approving the present IT Act, 2008. On the contrary he suggested that the Law Ministry must “reformulate” the amendments and should come up with the Information Technology Amendment Act, 2009 (IT Act 2009).

Although some misinformed and ignorant cyber law observers believe that the IT Act 2008 is a good piece of law yet the Law Ministry must remain unaffected and unguided by their claims. It would be good idea to consult real and knowledgeable techno-legal experts this time by the Law Ministry.

The Law Ministry must avoid falling into the traps of the self claimed cyber law experts who are neither lawyers nor have knowledge of cyber law. Further, the Ministry must also not pay much attention to the “bureaucratic alliances and favours” to the industry players who are lobbying real hard to make the Information Technology Act, 2000 (IT Act, 2000) a weak piece of legislation.

Let us hope that we can expect some sensible and effective legislation this time from the Law Ministry that is neither based upon industry lobbying nor upon the naïve suggestions of the self claimed cyber law experts and corrupt and ignorant bureaucrats.