Cyber tribunal by Aug. 15

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, MAY 16. The Government intends operationalising the Cyber Regulations Appellate Tribunal and the Controller of Certifying Authorities to regulate cyber space by August 15, said sources in the Ministry of Information Technology.

Work on setting up the two institutions began soon after the Lok Sabha passed the Information Technology Bill through voice vote today.

The Bill is expected to be introduced in the Upper House tomorrow, the last day of the current budget session. The chances of it entering the statute books brightened after the Congress(I) withdrew all amendments proposed by its members.

According to sources, the turnaround took place after the Minister for Information Technology, Mr. Pramod Mahajan, arranged for his Ministry's bureaucrats to brief representatives of some political parties late yesterday night.

Unless the Congress(I) goes back on its word, there are virtually no hurdles to clear the Bill in the Upper House.

Speaking at the end of the two-day discussion, Mr. Mahajan denied the Opposition charge that the Government wanted to push the Bill in a hurry without deliberating upon provisions which could have serious implications.

Without giving a convincing explanation for pushing the Bill in less than a week after it was vetted by the Parliamentary Standing Committee, Mr. Mahajan, however, struck a conciliatory tone and thanked all those who had helped achieve a modicum of unanimity in getting it passed.

Mr. Mahajan also said the proposed Act would be flexible in nature and amendments would be incorporated whenever it was felt that the legislation had been outpaced by technology.

He steered clear of explaining the rationale behind technical aspects of the Bill because this was done on Monday by the Information and Broadcasting Minister, Mr. Arun Jetlie.

The Minister instead dwelt on the Opposition's objections to some ``draconian objections''.

He said the Government would write to States to set up specialised task forces to deal with IT-related crimes and till then the provision of allowing police officers not below the rank of Deputy Superintendent of Police to raid and arrest suspected cyber criminals without a warrant was an adequate safeguard.

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