K'taka set to get exclusive institute for cyber law

Karnataka is likely to get the country's first exclusive academic institution dedicated to higher studies in cyber law. The International Institute of Information Technology Law (IIIT Law), a trust with 17 legal and IT experts as its members, is making some headway.

IIIT Law, founded by justice B K Somasekhara, former high court judge, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, in the first phase has decided to organise awareness and training programmes across the country on the nuances relating to cyber law.

"We have strong intellectual property with leading legal and IT professionals as members of the organisation. As we move forward, we intend to become a premier law institute for studies in IT (cyber) law in collaboration with universities or law schools," said Na Vijayashankar, director (research & programme) and a founder member of the IIIT Law. He said the institute intended to become a university or deemed university in the future.

As a first step, IIIT Law will organise its first training programme on 'IT laws for senior professionals' in Bangalore on June 24. "Our aim is to organise more training programmes and whatever funds we generate from these, will be utilised to build the infrastructure for the institution," said N Vidyashankar, secretary IIIT Law.

IIIT Law is scheduled to be formally launched on June 2 this year by the chief justice of Karnataka high court.

Vidyashankar said, although India was the twelfth country in the world to adopt its Information Technology Act 2000, experts felt that the act did not have enough teeth for punitive measures.

"Information asset owners are not making full use of the mechanism and are yet to adopt a requisite legal compliance regime in their business processes. This exposes them to cyber crime risks," he added.