DailyPost 1016
IS LAW CATCHING UP?
Given pace of digital technology, the intensity and all pervasiveness of cyberspace pushing ahead unabated, one needs to pause and think as to where is the legal framework to support it. To have a check on the seemingly unruled and unregulated IT behemoths and to provide succour to the ongoing loot of data worldwide. The emerging / disruptive technologies are bound to change the world beyond recognition and the law as the sentinel of the masses has to emerge in the same manner as disruptive and emerging technologies have.
Imagine of criminal justice system wherein the FIR is registered online, with all the connected legal documents, leaving no iota of doubt about the legal veracity of the complainant / offence, digital verification, statements then taken online, most of the evidence collected through the digital medium, encrypted, the physical part of the evidence digitally documented – video recording etc, RFID based exhibits, forensic examination, only GPS based locations wherever required and the whole investigation would get collated, with IO’s discretion used for each piece of evidence. The collated chargesheet is then transferred online to the courts.
The court software / algorithm would give the acceptance after going through fed parameters, physical intervention if required, the summons / warrants would be served online with copies to all process authorities with defined roles, the trial to be conducted through video, on acceptable gadgets / programs, the collation – the narratives automatically happening with ensuing orders on every date of hearing / trail and finally the the essential facts / findings with rudimentary evaluation would be put up for the final judgement before the presiding judge. Undeniably, legal / procedural enablements need to happen.
Technically it can happen forthwith. The other bottlenecks have still to be ironed out, it would be paradigm shift for all stakeholders in all their operations. It can be extrapolated to other laws in whatever area vis a vis the present level of digital technology. We have to reach this operational point at the earliest to make our legal onslaught on the disruptive technologies impact on systems / human life. The world is at the crossroads of technology and law.
LAW HAS TO ALIGN WITH TECHNOLOGY TO EVOLVE THE NEW DIGITAL AGE RULE OF LAW FRAMEWORK.
Sanjay Sahay