[icernet] Virtual Reality Becomes Virtual Legality

[Arul Selvan]

  What is common to a Supreme Court decision on medical negligence and 
the Companies Amendment Bill 2003? Its the almost simultaneous 
recognition given to videoconferencing as being legally permissible. 
Clearly, the areas of operation are very different. The Supreme Court 
decision (State of Maharashtra Vs Dr Praful Desai) deals with recording 
of evidence through videoconferencing. The substituted Section 285 of 
the Amendment Bill permits holding of board meetings through 
teleconferencing or videoconferencing. This development ought not to 
surprise in a nation which claims to be a frontrunner in 
telecom/software, yet the legislature and judiciary have till very 
recently not really moved to reorient laws in recognition of social, 
political and technological changes. To dwell on the plethora of archaic 
laws is not the purpose of this column. But the resistance which the 
Information Technology Act and the Convergence Bill has faced speaks 
volumes for legislative inertia.

Source:
http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=36368