The Information Technology Act, 2000 (IT Act) is an Act of the Indian Parliament that serves as the country's primary cyber law, providing a legal framework for electronic transactions, digital governance, and the prevention of cybercrimes. It was officially passed on October 17, 2000, to address the problem of a paper-centric legal system being inadequate for the rapidly growing digital economy. The Act is based on the UNCITRAL Model Law on Electronic Commerce, 1996, aligning India's digital laws with international standards.
The Act, which contains 94 sections divided into 13 chapters, works by granting legal recognition to electronic records (Section 4) and electronic signatures (Section 5), making them legally equivalent to paper documents and handwritten signatures. It defines and penalizes a range of cyber offences, such as unauthorised access and data theft (Section 43) and hacking (Section 66). The Act connects to and amended existing statutes like the Indian Penal Code, 1860, to incorporate cyber-related offences. It also led to the formation of the Controller of Certifying Authorities to regulate digital signatures.
The Act underwent a major amendment in 2008, which introduced new offences like cyber terrorism (Section 66F) and broadened the term 'Digital Signature' to 'Electronic Signature'. However, a significant change was the striking down of Section 66A (dealing with offensive online content) by the Supreme Court in Shreya Singhal v. Union of India (2015), which ruled it violated the fundamental right to freedom of speech and expression. The Act is currently supplemented by the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, which increase accountability for online platforms. The proposed Digital India Act is being drafted to potentially replace the IT Act, 2000, to address emerging technologies like AI.