Under pressure, Govt drops controversial clause in IT Bill

Under pressure, Govt drops controversial clause in IT Bill
SANJEEV MIGLANI

NEW DELHI, MAY 15: The Indian government has dropped a proposed amendment to a planned information technology bill that would have required compulsory monitoring of cybercafe users by proprietors, an official said on Monday. "It has been deleted. It is not here, the amendments proposed," said an official, who did not wish to be identified.

The clause was considered draconian because it prescribed fines and imprisonment in cases where the rules are breached, and also set a six-month deadline on providing Web site details. Opposition deputies said the government was seeking to rush the bill through without giving them enough time to analyse the proposed landmark legislation.

"Even the legal community is still exploring it. Let us not rush into it," Congress party leader Madhavrao Scindia said in the lower house, the Lok Sabha, when the government set a 90-minute deadline for further amendments from members. But the government seemed determined to get the bill passed on Monday, two days before the parliamentary session ends.

"We have firm intentions to get the bill passed today," Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pramod Mahajan, also in charge of information technology, told reporters. Mahajan said charges that the government was rushing through the legislation was unfounded because the bill was available on the Internet and a multi-party parliamentary committee had discussed it and given its recommendations last Friday.

Originally introduced in parliament in December 1999, the legislation was referred to a multi-party parliamentary committee for wider scrutiny and debate.

Dewang Mehta, president of the National Association of Software and Service Companies, told Reuters the bill was generally sound, other than the proposed amendments that were struck out, but added that "adequate thought process has not been gone through on cyber crimes." "The IT bill will push up industry. E-commerce which was4.5 billion Rupees last year (1999/2000, April-March) can go up to Rs 2,500 crore ($569.5 million) this year. We do not want a delay in passage of the IT Bill," he said.