In an effort to boost the rapidly expanding over $2-billion online shopping market in the country, the government is likely to modify the Information Technology (IT) Act, 2000 under the proposed Communications Convergence Bill to remove legal obstacles in e-commerce transactions.
This modification would provide legal recognition for transactions carried out using electronic data interchange and other means of electronic communication. It is also intended to overcome obstacles arising from statutory provisions that may not be varied contractually by providing equal treatment to paper-based and electronic information. The idea behind this modification also is to draft a set of globally acceptable guidelines to increase the legal predictability for electronic commerce (e-commerce) and adopt the United Nations (UN) General Assembly’s recommended Model Law on Electronic Commerce (MLFC).
According to the UN Commission on International Trade Law, MLEC is looking to enable and facilitate transactions done via electronic means by providing governments with internationally acceptable rules, which are aimed at eliminating legal obstacles and increasing legal predictability for e-commerce.
Further, towards this development, the government already has formed a committee to develop a conceptual framework for the Communications Convergence Bill, which was originally drafted in 2000 under the Bharatiya janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government. However, the bill was at that time dropped on account of logjam between the telecom ministry and the ministry of information and broadcasting on bringing the broadcasting sector under the ambit of a super-regulator. Nevertheless, the department of telecom (DoT) is expected to be finalize the bill before the winter session of Parliament.