The Department of Information Technology (DIT) has set up an Expert Committee for an in-depth review of all the issues relating to the Information Technology Act, 2000. The Committee will be headed by Shri Brijesh Kumar, Secretary, Department of Information Technology. The Committee shall comprise Dr. A.K. Chakravarty, Scientist-G, DIT, Shri Kiran Karnik, President NASSCOM, Shri A.K. Singh, Shri Vakul Sharma, Advocate, Shri Ajay Chowdhry, Chairman HCL Infosystems Ltd., Shri Ajit Balakrishnan, CEO, Rediff, and Shri R. Ramraj, CEO, Sifi Ltd. Shri M. Madhavan Nambiar, Joint Secretary in the DIT will be the Member-Secretary of the Committee.

The Terms of Reference of the Committee are as under:

                     i.                                                to re-examine the Information Technology (IT) Act, 2000 so as to ensure that the Act remains an enabler for development of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) and has adequate measures for promoting growth of electronic commerce and electronic governance in the country and also for regulating cyber crimes and cyber forensics as well as addresses all aspects of the cyber security etc., in a manner that there is no scope for different interpretations and follows the international guidelines for uniformity to gain from the process of globalisation;

                   ii.                                                to consider the recommendations made by the Inter-Ministerial Working Group on Cyber Law & Cyber Forensics and finalise the amendments to the IT Act, 2000;

                  iii.                                                to consider and recommend suitable legislation for data protection (privacy) in the IT Act, 2000;

                  iv.                                                to consider the feasibility of making the IT Act, 2000 technology-neutral and recommend necessary amendments to the IT Act, 2000;

                    v.                                                to consider the additional feedback and suggestions received by the government and recommend suitable amendments to the IT Act, 2000;

                  vi.                                                to consider the issues of regulation of operations of cyber cafes and blocking of websites within the IT Act, 2000; and

                 vii.                                                to consider the matter of India signing the European Cyber Crimes treaty and make suitable recommendations.

The need for setting up of the Expert Committee was felt due to certain deficiencies noticed and various suggestions received for further improvement from professional bodies, institutions, other stakeholders relating to enabling provisions necessary for implementation of e-governance initiatives, cyber laws, cyber forensic etc.

It may be recalled that the subject matter Information Technology (IT) Act, 2000 came into force w.e.f. 9.6.2000 by an enactment Act No. 21 of 2000. The law as enacted was based on the Model Law for E-Commerce developed by the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) and serves as an omnibus Act to provide legal recognition for transactions carried out by means of data interchange and other means of electronic communication, commonly referred to as "electronic commerce" which involves the use of alternative to paper-based methods of communication and storage of information, to facilitate electronic filing of documents with the Government agencies. In order to consider those suggestions and the feedback, an Inter-Ministerial Working Group (IMWG) on Cyber Law and Cyber Forensics was set up. Though the IMWG made a number of recommendations it could not finalise the recommendations for making the Act technology-neutral and for providing legislation for data protection (privacy) which is now referred to the present Expert Committee.

The Expert Committee will be assisted by a Sub-Committee headed by Dr. A.K. Chakravarty, Scientist-Member. The Expert Committee will submit its report within six weeks.

RM/AMA

070105 IT Act Expert Committee -