The Information Technology Amendment Act 2008

The sole cyber law of India, Information Technology Act 2000 started off with a praiseworthy effort. However, the government slept over the enactment and did not care to amend it suitably. The same weakened through the IT Amendment Act 2008.

CJ: Shayam Prasad

Wed, Oct 28, 2009 15:43:27 IST

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India IT Act 2000 Issue :

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY Act 2000 (IT Act 2000) is the sole cyber law of India. At the time of its enactment in 2000, it was a good start and praiseworthy effort. However, the government slept over the enactment and did not care to amend it suitably. On the contrary, it weakened and destablised the same through the Information Technology Amendment Act 2008 (IT Act 2008).

Recently, a press release has once again fueled the debate about the desirability of such weak cyber law of India. The news report claims that the IT Act 2008 has been ‘notified’. This is more rumour than truth.

We contacted Praveen Dalal, managing partner of Perry4Law and the leading techno-legal expert of India in this regard. He informed that the IT Act 2008 cannot come into force till the Central government ‘notifies’ the same as per the requirements of section 1(2) of the IT Act, 2008. He maintained that it would be a ‘prudent exercise’ on the part of Indian government if it publishes the claimed notification at any of its websites. Otherwise, speculation and rumours would keep on surfacing tarnishing the image and credibility of Indian government.

We also tried to find any such notification on the sites of Ministry/Department of Information Technology (DIT), Ministry/Department of Law, etc but could not find the same. In fact, one of the cyber law observers has claimed that there is no information whatsoever that the IT act 2008, has been notified except some news reports. None of these reports have provided either the text of the notification or the link to the website wherein that notification has been published. Even the notification number is missing.

On the other hand, there are clear hints from the Law Minister Molly that the Information Technology Act 2000 and IT Act 2008 would be further amended. In these circumstances, all the news reports claiming that there is the notification of the IT Act 2008 seems to be unsupported by any substantial authority and governmental backing.

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