Electronic
discovery (e-discovery) in India is a novel field. With
the active use of information and communication technology (ICT) in
India, the requirements and demand for e-discovery
services in India would increase.
However, e-discovery in India is also facing many
challenges that India must tackle effectively to use e-discovery
services in India. For instance, e-discovery
for cloud computing in India, e-discovery
for social media in India, e-discovery challenges for
virtual
data rooms and legal compliances in India, e-discovery
and due diligence mechanisms, etc require special
attention of Indian government and various e-discovery professionals
and stakeholders.
E-discovery may also be useful for meeting the
requirements of laws like Health
Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996
(HIPAA) of United States. Although India does not have a dedicated
law like HIPPA and presently HIPPA
compliances in India are not followed yet in future we
cannot rule out this possibility.
Similarly, we have no dedicated data
protection laws in India, data
privacy laws in India and privacy
rights and laws in India. Of course, we have general
laws and some of the provisions of these laws can be
applied to data security, data protection and privacy protection in
India. However, that is a temporary solution and in the long run we
need dedicated privacy
rights, privacy laws and data protection laws in India.
Recently the Supreme Court of India issued an
interim order that reserved the legal practice in its widest possible
manner to Indian
advocates alone. This practically means that this
restriction
equally applies to e-discovery services in India. Thus,
only Indian law firms/lawyers and Indian
e-discovery LPO/KPOs of India can provide e-discovery
services in India. Similarly, legal
e-discovery services in India cannot be provided by any
person or firm unless it consists of Indian advocates alone.
