HT Correspondent
Nagpur

The Nagpur University would consider the proposal for starting a distant education programme for creating awareness about cyber laws among the people in association with the Asian School of Cyber Laws (ASCL), Pune. Nagpur University Vice-Chancellor Dr Arun Satputaley stated this in his presidential address at the inaugural session of the newly introduced three-month course on Cyber Laws at the varsity's Post Graduate Teaching Department (PGTD) of Law here on Monday.

Adv. Bhanudas Kulkarni of the Bombay High Court inaugurated the course while senior judge of the Madras High Court Justice V S Sirpurkar was the chief guest on the occasion.

Head of the University's Department of Electronics and Computer Science Dr Rajgopalan, Prof. Kamal Singh of Physics Department, visiting faculty of ASCL Devashish Naik and head of post-graduate department of Law Dr Thrity Patel were prominently present.

Students and researchers accustomed to Internet, must be aware of cyber laws for authenticity of online data, Satputaley said. And therefore, he said, the course was the need of the hour to educate the people about the cyber crimes and cyber laws.

In his inaugural address, Adv. Kulkarni said the cyber laws have two facets - cyber crime and copyright protection. At present, he said, there is no litigation in the Bombay High Court regarding cyber crime. But the lawyers should keep themselves abreast of developments in computer field, particularly e-commerce to handle cyber crime cases effectively.

Similarly, Kulkarni observed that the investigative agencies seem to be at an infant stage to deal with cyber crimes. Information Technology Act covers almost every aspect of the cyber laws. He stressed the need for setting up Cyber Law Redressal Forum for the benefit of the commoners. Dr Rajgopal said e-governance gives confidence to netizens but people should become cyber ethical. He said software piracy rate has come down to 67 percent from 89 percent. In 1986, he said, there were 130 sites. But today, he said, millions of sites are on the net. Perhaps, he said, cyber laws were enacted in most of the countries in view of global crisis. He said digital signatures are legalised which has posed a great challenge before us. Dr Rajgopal said that a mechanism has to be created to block pornographic sites in the interest of the society.

Justice Sirpurkar opined that for e-governance people should follow cyber ethics. ASCL faculty member Devashish Naik said cyber laws were enacted considering the need for having a legal framework to validate e-commerce and other aspects. There were no check on-line frauds in India and breach of confidentiality. In near future, he said, there would be a lot of litigations in the court relating to cyber crime.

He said the evidence in cyber crimes differs. And hence, he said, need is being felt to educate the investigative agencies about the Internet and its intricacies. For the first time in India, he said, the Karnataka police has set up a cyber Police Station to sternly deal with cyber crime. Dr Thrity Patel made introductory remarks and highlighted the importance of the course. Kaumudi Challa conducted the proceedings of the function.Senate member Dhananjay Mandlekar and other prominent teachers and students were present on the occasion.