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Unit 4: Information Technology Act, 2000

4. Encourages public authority to be sensible and to make optimum use of limited fi scal Notes
resources.
5. Reminds public authorities their power and duty including channels of supervision and
accountability.

6. Free flow of information can tackle any disaster there by enables sustained development

and growth.

Note World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO)

Disputes arising out of the Domain Name System can be resolved by the concerned parties
by referring to the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), which incidentally, is
the first body to resolve disputes by online arbitration. The registration with ICANN confers

authority on WIPO. WIPO has confirmed the efficacy of online arbitration in a number of

cases. The first Indian case was that of Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. concerning the two
domain names held by it, viz., “economictimes.com” and “timesofindia.com”. The whole

process of arbitration took place online and the decision was sent online. The total time
taken was just 45 days in this case, as against the long time taken in court proceedings.
4.3 Information Technology Act
In May 2000, at the height of the dot-com boom, India enacted the IT Act and became part of a
select group of countries to have put in place cyber laws. In all these years, despite the growing
crime rate in the cyber world, only less than 25 cases have been registered under the IT Act, 2000

and no final verdict has been passed in any of these cases as they are now pending with various
courts in the country.
Although the law came into operation on October 17, 2000, it still has an element of mystery
around it. Not only from the perception of the common man, but also from the perception of
lawyers, law enforcing agencies and even the judiciary.

The prime reason for this is the fact that the IT Act is a set of technical laws. Another major
hurdle is the reluctance on the part of companies to report the instances of cyber crimes, as
they don’t want to get negative publicity or worse get entangled in legal proceedings. A major
hurdle in cracking down on the perpetrators of cyber crimes such as hacking is the fact that most
of them are not in India. The IT Act does give extra-territorial jurisdiction to law enforcement

agencies, but such powers are largely inefficient. This is because India does not have reciprocity
and extradition treaties with a large number of countries.
The Indian IT Act also needs to evolve with the rapidly changing technology environment that
breeds new forms of crimes and criminals. We are now beginning to see new categories and
varieties of cyber crimes, which have not been addressed in the IT Act. This includes cyber
stalking, cyber nuisance, cyber harassment, cyber defamation and the like. Though Section
67 of the Information Technology Act, 2000 provides for punishment to whoever transmits or
publishes or causes to be published or transmitted, any material which is obscene in electronic
form with imprisonment for a term which may extend to two years and with fine which may

extend to twenty five thousand rupees on first convection and in the event of second may extend

to five years and also with fine which may extend to fifty thousand rupees, it does not expressly

talk of cyber defamation. The above provision chiefly aim at curbing the increasing number of
child pornography cases and does not encompass other crimes which could have been expressly
brought within its ambit such as cyber defamation.

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