‘The IT Act is fine, but its interpretation is not’
Several organisations such as the Alternate Law Forum and Centre for Internet and Society are campaigning to amend the IT Act 2000. However, SV Raghavan, scientific secretary, office of PSA to the government of India, stated that the law in place is fine but the stakeholders need to be educated on implementing it better.
The article was published in DNA on December 19, 2012.
Raghavan, who was at the National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS) in the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) on Tuesday to give a lecture on cyber security, specifically singled out the controversial Section 66 that can hold a person viable for posting ‘offensive’ content online. The IT Act 2000 is constituted to keep such law breakers under check.
“The IT Act 2000 gives specific powers to some of the law agencies to take action. In cyberspace, nearly 90% of the users don’t come with any malicious intentions. Now there is a large concerted effort across the country, to teach policemen how to apply this law and interpret it. There is also an effort to teach the judiciary to interpret the law correctly, so that the right people are held accountable,” he said.
“No matter what you do, when the law is written in English, sometimes it comes across two dimensional and the original intent of the law may be lost, which is why there are agencies who are dedicated to teaching the judiciary on how to interpret it,” he added.
As for cyber security amongst civilians, vigilance is simply all it takes.
Filed under:
Internet Governance,
Information Technology
