A balancing Act

Sqn Ldr B. G. Prakash

IT takes a long time to bring in a new law and an indeterminate period to amend it. The Information Technology Act 2000 of India, along with others such as the Integrated Chip layout design Act and the Communication Convergence Bill, is one step in this direction.

The IT Act 2000 amends some provisions of four existing laws: (i) The Indian Penal Code, 1860, (ii) The Indian Evidence Act, 1872 (iii) The Bankers Book Evidence Act, 1891 (iv) The Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934. The IT Act 2000 purportedly applies not only to the whole of India but also to offences committed outside India by any person. When the country is struggling to formulate an extradition treaty as well as to implement the existing treaty in some cases, this claim appears far fetched. E-mail headers can be caught but not the real crime-heads.

The IT Act 2000 does not deal with the intellectual property (IP) rights of domain name owners. Issues such as copyright, trademark and patent are left untouched. Common offences such as cyber theft, cyber stalking, cyber harassment and cyber defamation are not covered. ''Immovable property'' is excluded from the Act, and e-payment too is not clarified. Some say the Powers of Attorney Act, 1882, is not completely addressed. Because a cyber crime raises an issue of territorial uncertainty, a conflict of jurisdiction is possible.

e-courts in Singapore

It is in this context that Singapore comes in.

Singapore has e-courts, says Rajeeva Ratna Shah, Secretary, Ministry of Information Technology, Government of India. One can file a complaint or a petition electronically. It gets recorded. Further, when permitted by the court, a witness may not physically be present in front of the judiciary for reexamination or cross-examination. Five cameras cover the courtroom; a ''legal'' mobile van with videoconference facility reaches the location of the witness and the examination can be initiated from the courtroom. A big screen in the courtroom displays the witness being covered by the van.

Until now, the practice has been for the lawyer to give a verbal narrative and the witness answers the questions. In an e-court, the witness gets a visual description. Some steps are being initiated in India to electronify, in a limited sense, the Supreme Court and the high courts in the four metros.

On the evidence front

Audio, audio-video and speech are admissible evidence; but new technology will need to get accommodated. 'Content' in the Communication Convergence Bill 2000 means, ''any sound, text, data, picture - still or moving, other audio-visual representation, signal or intelligence of any nature or any combination thereof which is capable of being created, processed, stored, retrieved or communicated electronically.''

The Controller of Certifying Authority, K.N. Gupta, talks about including the 'digital signature' as valid on documents. The word 'digital' can narrow down the technology from which the signature is produced now. A cyber law cannot be technology-specific. Technology-neutral legislation is needed.

Cyber cell - alive and kicking

The country's first cyber police station under a Deputy Superintendent of Police took shape at the Silicon City of India. The year-old 'cyber cell' could book only one case till now. Yet it is a good start. It can receive complaints by e-mail too. Prosecution and conviction are still a long way off. The authorities have mooted old-fashioned bells to be sounded every hour at police stations to announce to society that they are alive and active. One wonders how the cyber police station will factor this in.

Problems and challenges

Surely, more loopholes will be found because of ambiguity and due to evolution in technology. For instance, Voice 'over' Internet Protocol is not permitted under the Indian Act. Technically, voice is not transmitted as such, it is converted into digital bits of signal and gets transmitted. If digits that bear data or image can be allowed, what difference does it make if some of the digital signals that go along with the other bits represent voice?

'Over' is another word; technologists supporting the defence can prove that 'voice' is only going ''along with'' and not 'over'. More debates are in the offing. In IT-enabled services (ITES), a Web site or a link may be the contact point for the customer.

A service provider may become Janet Williams whereas, in reality, she may be Pooja Atri. E-service from anywhere to anywhere may be the slogan; but if a name is deliberately changed, it may be unethical.

In the brick- and-mortar world, the law would demand a Notary certification.

A question of etiquette too

Then there's the question of etiquette. It may be ill-mannered to use words in full capitals in e-mails, says a Net educator.

This is equivalent to shouting. This necessitates evolving a benchmark for the use of capitals.

But while every new initiative may bring in fresh problems, it is better to face them rather than run away from technology.5

The author is a freelance journalist based in Bangalore

(sqnldrbgp@vsnl.com)