Policy on e-mail use by officials soon, court told

The Delhi High Court Thursday was told by the government that it is on the verge of finalising the e-mail policy for official communication by government officers in order to bar transfer of data to a server outside the country.

A division bench of Justice B.D. Ahmed and Justice Vibhu Bakhru, recording the submission of the central government, said: "It is an important issue, do it fast. We are sure new policy will be in line with the provisions of the Public Records Act."

The court asked government's counsel Sumit Pushkarna about its stand on the allegation that officials were using social networking sites and other e-mail accounts with service providers, whose servers were outside India, for official communications instead of the government server of national informatics centre (nic.in).

In reply to the court's query, counsel submitted a draft policy before the bench and said that a comprehensive e-mail policy will be formed and the same will be placed before the court within four weeks.

The court was hearing a petition filed by former Bharatiya Janata Party leader N. Govindacharya saying that use of e-mail accounts whose servers were outside India and transfer of nation's official data using this medium was violative of the Public Records Act.

The court would next hear the case Oct 30.