BANGALORE: If the Avnish Bajaj, Bazee case sent shock waves through the Indian IT industry, there could be other areas of serious concern, according to cyber law expert, Pavan Duggal. "There are many areas that do not find mention in the Act including rights of domain name owners, patents, trademarks, copyrights and IPRs." Further, he added that the IT Act excludes some crucial aspects such as the power of attorney and any contract for sale or conveyance of immovable property. Duggal, who is president of Cyberlaws.net and advocate, Supreme Court of India, was in Bangalore to address a session on "Regulation of the Internet: The Indian experience", at the Computer Law Association First International Asian Conference 2005, in the city.

Pointing out to some ironies and quirks in the law, he said, "The Act talks of promoting e-commerce and begins by excluding immovable property from the ambit of e-commerce. This kind of reasoning defies logic."

A grave area of concern for corporates could be the potential abuse of the law in the enforcement arena which confers "draconian powers" to Deputy Superintendent of Police(DSPs), allowing them to search and arrest without warrant, said Duggal. "The DSP would be able to take action against an individual who is about to commit a cyber crime. This would be a case of penalizing intention," he said. He warned that this could give rise to potential harassment of IT companies from DSPs.

Summing the Act, Duggal said that while the Indian IT Act was a historic step towards promoting e-commerce, steps need to be taken to address the loopholes. He hoped that the government would be quick in responding to challenges raised by constantly changing technologies.