The Evolution of India’s Cyber Law: A Legislative Analysis of The Information Technology Act, 2000 and its Amendments

Abstract

The Information Technology (IT) Act, 2000, India’s first cyberlaw that lays the foundation of the nation’s digital legal system, is examined in this legislative study together with its origins, goals, clauses, modifications, and criticisms. Rooted in the UNCITRAL Model Law, the Act was a first step in giving legal validity to electronic transactions and digital authentication in India and was adopted to handle the developing issues of electronic commerce, digital signatures, and cybercrime. By means of a thorough analysis of its legislative history and significant amendments, most notably the IT Amendment Act, 2008, and later laws in 2018 and 2021. This legislative analysis assesses how the Act changed to address new-age cyber dangers and growing privacy issues. The analysis also includes historic court rulings that profoundly affected its interpretation and execution; Shreya Singhal v. Union of India and Justice K.S. Puttaswamy v. Union of India.
Although the IT Act set the foundation for e-governance, intermediary control, and cybersecurity, it has come under fire for jurisdictional uncertainty, poor protection of intellectual property rights, and scant coverage of developing cybercrimes. The IT Act is compared with the proposed Digital India Bill, which aims to modernize India’s cyberspace by means of structured control for digital platforms, artificial intelligence, and platform accountability, addressing digital platform responsibility. Emphasizing the need for a dynamic legislative framework that constantly adjusts to technological developments, therefore assuring safe digital governance and maintaining constitutional rights in the digital age, the paper ends.