Five industry bodies including CII and FICCI objected to IT rules

At least five industry bodies had written to the Union government between April and May urging it to reconsider the implementation of the IT Rules in its current form before they came into effect.

These letters, written by CII, FICCI, Assocham, US India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF) and the US India Business Council (USIBC) pointed out that the criminal liability imposed on intermediaries in the new IT rules could have seriously detrimental impacts on companies’ ease of doing business. TOI has copies of the letters.

The letters, addressed to IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and secretary Ajay Prakash Sawhney, had also asked the government to extend the time allocated to social media companies for implementation of the rules which came into effect on May 25.