The IT Bill was blocked by the Opposition in the Lok Sabha yesterday, despite information technology minister Pramod Mahajan's resolve to get the Bill passed yesterday itself.
But according ot a minister in the central government, Bill is slated tto be cleared by the Lok Sabha today.
Earlier, the entire Opposition was in favour of passing it only in the next session of the Lok Sabha, but Prime Minister A B Vajpayee remained non-committal, saying "Being the discussion. Whatever time you need we will see later".
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The discussion is expected to be completed today following which Mahajan will reply to the members. And the Bill will be taken up for passage after that.
Intervening in the debate yesterday, information and broadcasting minister Arun Jaitley discounted the fear of the Opposition, saying the legal framework was already long overdue, since the United Nations passed the model law in 1997.
He said although e-commerce and e-documentation were a reality in India, the Indian Evidence Act recognised only hard copies and manual signatures. The Bill would allow digital signatures and e-mail documents to be recognised by the law, he added. The second important reason for a hurry was that cyber offences were already taking place all over the world. If a hacker is operating from India then he she would go scot free even if traced, because there is no law in India to recognise it as an offence.