Cabinet approves IT Bill

Mahajan said the cabinet also approved a bill on freedom of information and amendments to related acts and rules, which will be introduced on May 17, the last day of the budget session. He said the cabinet also approved certain amendments to the State Financial Corporation Act 1951 and repeal of Forfeiture Act 1859.

The Standing Committee has also recommended that people hosting websites or portals on a server located in India should furnish complete details about themselves and their sites, failing which they could be fined upto Rs 5 lakh and incarcerated for upto one year. The IT Bill provides facilitation of electronic communication by means of reliable electronic records and electronic interaction in trade and commerce, the committee observed.

quot;The Bill provides for eliminating barriers to e-commerce resulting from uncertainties over writing and signature requirements and to promote development of legal and business infrastructure necessary to implement secure e-commerce, it said. The Bill also helps to establish uniformity of rules, regulations and standards regarding the authentication and integrity of electronic records and documents.

A Cyber Regulations Advisory Committee, comprising a chairman besides official and non-official members has also been suggested. In addition, a Cyber Regulations Appellate tribunal, with the same composition and powers as that of the Appellate Tribunal constituted under the SEBI Act 1992 has been suggested, the committee said.

The parliamentary standing committee on science and technology has suggested three year8217;s imprisonment for cyber crimes like hacking and making it mandatory for all internet service providers and cyber cafes to maintain details about the persons accessing the services.

The suggestion follows the deposition by Delhi police commissioner Ajay Raj Sharma that the internet service providers should allow the internet access through digital telephone to keep records of caller identification in the respective server as criminal minds could easily cause damage from the mushrooming cyber cafes.

He had suggested that all ISPs be allowed the accessing after identification procedures like inserting ration card, electoral card, passport, driving license, permanent account number card for internet accessing. The failure to comply with this requirement entails one year imprisonment and or a fine upto Rs 500,000.

The standing committee headed by C Ramachandraiah which went through the Information Technology Bill 1999 during its sittings in May also recommended three year imprisonment and or a fine upto Rs 200,000 for hacking8217; or causing wrongful loss or damage to the public through alteration, destruction of any information residing in a computer source or diminishing its value or utility.