e-Governance in India is governed by the Information Technology Act 2000. e-Governance in India has following components:
1) Legal recognition of electronic records (Sec 4) : Wherever required by law, the requirement of submission of documents shall be deemed to be satisfied if it is rendered in electronic form and such electronic document is accessible for subsequent reference.
2) Legal recognition of digital signature (Sec 5): Authentication of electronic documents has to be done through digital signature affixed in such manner as may be prescribed by the Central Govt.
3) Use of electronic records and digital signatures in Govt and its agencies (Sec 6): Wherever required, the following shall be rendered in electronic form:
(a) the filing of any form. application or any other document with any office, authority, body or agency owned or controlled by the appropriate Government in a particular manner;
(b) the issue or grant of any licence, permit, sanction or approval by whatever name called in a particular manner;
(c) the receipt or payment of money in a particular manner,
Legal requirement shall be deemed to have been satisfied if such filing, issue, grant, receipt or payment, as the case may be, is effected by means of such electronic form as may be prescribed by the appropriate Government
The appropriate central or state government shall prescribe rules for the format of electronic record and the manner of payment of fees.
4) Retention of electronic records (Sec 7) : Where the law requires retention of electronic records for specified period of time, such requirement shall be deemed to be fulfilled if
(a) the information contained in such e-documents therein remains accessible so as to be usable for a subsequent reference;
(b) the electronic record is retained in the format in which it was originally generated, sent or received.
(c) the details for identification of the origin, destination, date and time of despatch or receipt of such electronic record are available in the electronic record:
5) Publication of rule, regulation, etc., in Electronic Gazette (Sec 8): The IT Act provides that wherever any law provides for publication of any matter in the Official Gazette, then, such requirement shall be deemed to have been satisfied if such rule, regulation, order, bye-law, notification or any other matter is published in the Official Gazette or Electronic Gazette. The date of publication shall be deemed to be the date of the Gazette which was first published in any form.
6) No conferring of any right (Sec 9): Nothing contained in sections 6, 7 and 8 confer a right upon any person to insist that any Government body under any law should accept, issue, create, retain and preserve any document in the form of electronic records or effect any monetary transaction in the electronic form.
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