India Sets Up The First Online Cyber Law Clinic

An educational organization based in Anand district of Gujarat, India launched on January 7, 2007 a freely available cyber law clinic portal to ward off cyber crime.

After SEMCOM, the educational institute run by Charutar Vidya Mandal launched the online cyber law clinic; it has assumed a pioneering role in cyber law within Asia. Students of SEMCOM will run the clinic and it would speak and act on behalf of victims of cyber crime. It will also offer information about cyber laws and measures to prevent online crime.

According to Nikhil Zaveri, principal of SEMCOM, Internet usage will become three fold next year. In such a condition the Cyber Law Clinic will work like a 'first aid box' for people encountering difficulty while conducting online transactions.

SEMCOM is one among the 32 institutions that the Mandal runs and it is the single most institutes in the country that provides e-business course, said Dr. C. L. Patel, Chairman of the Mandal. This way SEMCOM is celebrating its decade of existence while demonstrating their motto "what we think others don't".

Zaveri explained the concept of the clinic as involving each student volunteering one hour per day to provide answers to queries of people within a period of three days. The clinic will also discuss the IT Act 2000 in detail, and guide people to the relevant persons relating to matters of cyber law.

The students of SEMCOM constructed the website under the technical guidance of the faculty Sarvesh Trivedi and Manish Sharda. The portal, www.cyberlawclinic.org is the primary initiative in Asia to battle against Internet fraud.

Zaveri added that the clinic would aid e-community to grasp legal implications and encourage a manner of fair and just handling of all transactions, business or otherwise. It would also help to build awareness of the current legal issues.

The biggest problem area in cyber laws is insufficient awareness. Until now only Stanford University had a cyber law clinic but that was for their internal use. The SEMCOM cyber law clinic is different as it aims to develop interaction between students and people of the cyber world.

Related article: India Remains an Easy Target for Hackers in '06

» SPAMfighter News - 1/11/2007