Information Technology Act, 2000
Scope, Digital Signature, Electronic Records
Duties of Subscribers
Offences and Penalties
Scope of Information Technology
Act, 2000
GENESIS OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
LEGISLATION IN INDIA
Mid 90’s saw an impetus in globalization and
computerization, with more and more nations
computerizing their governance, and e-commerce seeing
an enormous growth. Until then, most of international
trade and transactions were done through
documents being transmitted through post and by
telex only.
The United Nations Commission on International
Trade Law (UNCITRAL) adopted the Model Law on
e-commerce in 1996. The General Assembly of
United Nations passed a resolution in January
1997 inter alia, recommending all States in the UN to
give favorable considerations to the said Model Law,
which provides for recognition to electronic records and
Scope of Information Technology
Act, 2000
BRIEF HISTORY
New communication systems and digital technology have
made dramatic changes in the way we live and the means
to transact our daily business. Businessmen are
increasingly using computers to create, transmit and store
information in electronic form instead of traditional paper
documents. It is cheaper, easier to store and retrieve and
speedier to communicate.
The Government of India realized the need for introducing
a new law and for making suitable amendments to the
existing laws to facilitate e-commerce and give legal
recognition to electronic records and digital signatures. The
legal recognition to electronic records and digital
signatures in turn will facilitate the conclusion of contracts
and the creation of legal rights and obligations through the
electronic communication like Internet. This gave birth to
the Information Technology Bill, 1999.
Scope of Information Technology
Act, 2000
BRIEF HISTORY
In May 2000, The Parliament of India passed its first
Cyber law, the Information Technology Act,
2000. This not only provides the legal infrastructure
for E-commerce in India but it simultaneously
awards draconian powers to the Police to enter and
search, without any warrant, any public place for the
purpose of nabbing cyber criminals and preventing
cyber crime.
Information Technology Act,
2000
Information Technology Act,
2000
Information Technology Act,
2000
Information Technology Act,
2000
Information Technology Act, 2000
(i) Extends to the whole of India (Section 1) ;
(ii) Authentication of electronic records (Section 3) ;
(iii) Legal Framework for affixing Digital signature by
use of asymmetric crypto system and hash function
(Section 3) ;
(iv) Legal recognition of electronic records (Section 4);
(v) Legal recognition of digital signatures (Section 5) ;
(vi) Retention of electronic record (Section 7);
(vii) Publication of Official Gazette in electronic form
(Section 8);
(viii) Security procedure for electronic records and
digital signature (Sections 14, 15, 16);
(ix) Licensing and Regulation of Certifying authorities
for issuing digital signature certificates (Sections 17-
42);
Information Technology Act, 2000
(xi) Appointment of Certifying Authorities and Controller
of Certifying Authorities, including recognition of
foreign Certifying Authorities (Section 19);
(xii) Controller to act as repository of all digital
signature certificates (Section 20);
(xiii) Data Protection (Sections 43 & 66);
(xiv) Various types of computer crimes defined and
stringent penalties provided under the Act (Section 43
and Sections 66, 67, 72);
(xv) Appointment of adjudicating officer for holding
inquiries under the Act (Sections 46 & 47);
(xvi) Establishment of Cyber Appellate Tribunal under
the Act (Sections 48-56);
(xvii) Appeal from order of Adjudicating Officer to Cyber
Appellate Tribunal and not to any Civil Court (Section
57);
(xviii) Appeal from order of Cyber Appellate Tribunal to
Information Technology Act, 2000
(xix) Interception of information from computer to
computer (Section 69);
(xx) Protection System (Section 70);
(xxi) Act to apply for offences or contraventions
committed outside India (Section 75);
(xxii) Investigation of computer crimes to be
investigated by officer at the DSP (Deputy
Superintendent of Police) level;
(xxiii) Network service providers not to be liable in
certain cases (Section 79);
(xxiv) Power of police officers and other officers to
enter into any public place and search and arrest
without warrant (Section 80);
(xxv) Offences by the Companies (Section 85);
(xxvi) Constitution of Cyber Regulations Advisory
Committee who will advice the Central Government
and Controller (Section 88).
Information Technology Act, 2000
igital Signature
The Act provides for Digital signatures, which may be
considered functional equivalent to physical world
signatures capable of meeting all the fundamental
requirements, like authenticity of the sender, message
integrity and non-repudiation. Digital signature is a
misnomer. It does not mean scanning the handwritten
signatures electronically. In fact by applying digital
signatures one may actually transform an electronic
message into an alphanumeric code. It requires a key
pair (private key for encryption and public key for
decryption) and a hash function (algorithm).
Information Technology Act, 2000
lectronic Records
The Information Technology Act, 2000 is an enabling
Act as it enables a legal regime of electronic records.
That is, in order to be called legally binding all
electronic records, communications or transactions
must meet the fundamental requirements, one
authenticity of the sender to enable the recipient (or
relying party) to determine who really sent the
message, two messages integrity, the recipient must
be able to determine whether or not the message
received has been modified en route or is incomplete
and third, non-repudiation, the ability to ensure that
the sender cannot falsely deny sending the message,
nor falsely deny the contents of the message.