Cyber Law Of India Must Be Scrapped

Law and technology are never on the same page. While law takes its own time to formulate and mature yet technology marches at a speed much beyond the law to catch and grasp. The same is happening in the case of Indian cyber law.

In the year 2000 a regulatory framework was introduced by Indian parliament to regulate transactions in the Indian cyberspace. India was new to this field and it considered the models suggested by foreign countries. That is well understandable as at that point of time India lacked the expertise in this regard.

However, what is frustrating is that even after 13 years of enactment of the information technology act, 2000, Indian parliament still lacks the techno legal expertise to enact a proper cyber law. According to media reports, the cyber law of India is in a bad condition. The Indian cyber law has started showing signs of decaying cyber law legislation rather than a maturing enactment. Even the techno legal experts have expressed their dissatisfaction with the present cyber law of India.

According to Praveen Dalal, managing partner of New Delhi based ICT law firm Perry4Law and leading techno legal expert of Asia, the Cyber Law of India should be repealed. According to Dalal, the present Cyber Law of India is suffering from many Irregularities and Unconstitutionalities. He believes that the Cyber Law of India must be scrapped and dedicated laws must be enacted for various fields like Cyber Law, Cyber Security, Cyber Forensics, E-Governance, etc.

These concerns are valid and genuine. The information technology act started as a piece of legislation for e-commerce and e-governance. Now it is transformed into an instrumentality of state oppression and e-surveillance. However, the real problem is how Indian parliament would enact these techno legal frameworks that required sound techno legal expertise that is presently missing.

Many provisions of the IT Act 2000 are violating of civil liberties protection in cyberspace. Some of the rules and regulations made under the IT Act, 2000 are already challenges before none other than the Supreme Court of India. It would be only prudent if Indian government scraps the IT Act, 2000 and come up with constitutionally valid legal framework. India has been trying to get its cyber security infrastructure proper and up to date. India has also formulated the cyber security policy, 2013 to assert its seriousness about cyber security. However, cyber security in India is still in a bad shape despite all these efforts of Indian government. So what is the problem that is plaguing Indian cyber security initiatives?

According to experts although the national cyber security policy of India has been declared yet it still to have to achieve a lot. The biggest hurdle before the Indian cyber security initiatives is the lack of implementation of various cyber securities polices and strategies as formulated from time to time.

Take the example of the recent declaration of establishment of a cyber-command force for armed forces of India. This is the second time such a declaration has been made by Indian government. Similarly, declaration about putting in place a cyber-crisis management plan of India has been made from time to time. However, till now we have no implementable cyber-attacks crisis management plan of India.

It seems the necessary will power to execute various cyber security initiatives of India is missing. Similarly, the offensive and defensive cyber security capabilities of India are also missing. Indian government must consider all these aspects and come up with implementable cyber security initiatives.