Ensuring Online Signature Legality for Education in India

How to eSign a document: online signature legality for Education in India

with the entire world going digital the norm of a return contract is soon going to become absolute although electronic contracts are the new normal there is a lot of technical prowess that goes behind drafting and signing an electronic contract so here's all you want to know about it let's see what a contract is first and then go on and understand what an electronic contract is the word contract is derived from a latin word called contractual the word contractor means drawn together ing to simon a contract is an agreement creating and defining obligations between two parties let's see what an electronic contract is from an e-contract is a contract modeled executed and enacted by a software system it is a contract that is drafted and signed in an electronic form so there are two types of electronic contracts one being an email agreement and the other one is an online agreement so with respect to email agreements emails which convey the clear intention of parties can be treated as a binding agreement so this can be inferred from the decision in the case trimex international fce versus vedanta aluminium limited language by recognizing the change in the execution of commercial transactions supreme court disregarded the argument that mere exchanges over email does not qualify as contracts and it held that once the contract is concluded orally or in writing the mere fact that a formal contract has to be prepared and initial by the parties would not affect either the acceptance or the implementation of the particular contract next one is the online agreement online agreement has three subdivisions under it one being the browse rap agreement the other one is the shrink wrap agreement and the other one is a click wrap agreement what is the browser this these agreements are those which is intended to be winding up on the contracting party by the use of that particular website or the product these include the user policies and terms of service of websites that are in the form of terms of use or terms of service which can be found at the corner bottom of a website in the form of a hyperlink which most of us will be familiar with next was the shrink wrap agreement these contracts are licensed agreement by which the terms and conditions of the contract are enforced upon the contracting parties which are usually present on the plastic or in the manuals accompanying the product which is which the consumer buys the next one is the click wrap agreement this is the most familiar one of the above three these agreements require the user to give us consent to the terms and conditions which are known as the user agreement and govern the licensed usage of the software by merely clicking ok or ifv now we've seen what a contract and a new contract is and we've also analyzed the types of the contracts available so to see if these e-contracts are later invalid in our country we have to refer the provisions of certain acts uh the first one being the indian contract at 1572 and the information technology act 2000 and the indian evidence act of 1872 so with respect to the indian contract act under the section 2 cross h of this act an agreement enforceable by law is a contract the act provides a basic contractual rule that a contract is valid if it is made by competing parties out of their free consent for a lawful object and a consideration there is no specific way of communicating an offer and an acceptance it can be done either verbally by a return form or through conduct so it is the acceptance of the offer and the intimation of that acceptance which results in a complete contract the intimation must be done by some external manifestation which the law regards as sufficient so thus an electronic contract is as valid as a normal contract the only condition is that it should possess all the essentials of a valid contract now when we see it from the perspective of the information technology act 2000 the provisions of this act gives legal recognition to e-contracts so this can be inferred from the section 10a of this act which states that where in a contract formation the communication of proposals the acceptance of proposals and the revocation of proposals and acceptances as the case may be are expressed in electronic form or by the means of electronic record such contracts shall not be dreamed to be unenforceable solely on the ground that such electronic form or means was used for this purpose when a contact has to be completed it has to be affixed by a signature when we complete a normal contract so with respect to an e-contract we go by a digital solution a signature is a schematic script related with a person a signature on a document is a sign that the person accepts the purpose of this document which has been recorded session 3 of this act delivers for the verification of electronic records by affixing a digital signature verification of electronic record by electronic signature or electronic authentication technique shall be considered relevant thus an electronic contract can be created by digital signatures and this is recognized by indian law now we see it from the perspective of the indian evidence at 1872 so the courts in india recognize these e-contracts under the section 65a the procedure for furnishing an electronic document as an evidence in the court of law is provided under the 65b of the same act so this section says that any information contained in an electronic record produced by a computer in a printed store or copied form shall be deemed to be a document and can be admissible as an evidence in any proceeding without further proof of the original document by admissibility of the same various conditions prescribed also have to be complied which are it is required that the document or the email sought to be produced from a computer which was in regular use by a person who is having a lawful control over the same system at the time of producing it the next one is that the document or the email which was stored or received during the ordinary course of activities the information was fed into the system on a regular basis the computer output was in a proper operating condition and was not affected by the accuracy of the data interview any contract is basically a communication between two parties in the respect of the transfer of goods or services thus any email communication or other communication made electronically is recognized as invalid evidence in the court of law as under this act now we come to the last part of understanding what e-contracts are and this is the most crucial part because here we're going to learn about the issues and challenges that are involved in e-contracts so there are four challenges the first one is capacity to contract the second one is the free consent third is the decision on applicability of law and the fourth is a decision on the code of jurisdiction so let's say the first one capacity to contract one needs to ensure the person who is entering into an electronic contract should have the legal competence and capacity to enter into a contract often it is a nameless individual on the other side of the computer or a smartphone who is entering into a contract the service provider has no idea whether the individual who is clicked on the i agree text is legally competing to enter into a contract or not capacity to contract is one of the most important payroll site for entertainment contract as per the indian contract act 1872 which is mentioned in sections 10 11 and 12 of the same end contracts entered into by individuals who are not competent are merely void there may arise a situation where in infants who are not old enough to enter into a contract are entering into an online contract with the service provider by merely clicking an i agree text this agreement is a void implemented so next we come to free consent free consent is an essential prerequisite for valid contract in online contracts there is no scope for negotiation this is a great disadvantage for the user but the option to take it or leave it is always with the user in the case lic of india versus consumer education and research center the supreme court has said that in the dotted line contracts there would be no occasion for a weaker party to bargain as to assume to have equal bargaining he has either to accept or leave the service concludes his option would either be to accept the unreasonable or unfair terms or forward this service forever hence it can be concluded that the user should be prudent while giving his consent to avoid troubles the third one is decision or applicability of me the indian law provides two choices to apply personal jurisdiction that is to apply the law on a forum or to apply the law of the site of the transaction or occurrence that gave rise to the particular litigation in the first place the courts do have a judicial right to determine the choice if not by identifying the system of law with the transaction which has the closest and most real conditions there is no bar that the law of a foreign country cannot be applied in an indian party and could not be subject to work for the current jurisdiction the emphasis is on to say the proper law that is connected to the particular issue the last one is decision on the code jurisdiction he be a wider scope for the cause of action at many geographical locations this might lead to filing of cases at different places defending lawsuits at many geographical locations can be both expensive and frustrating hence the choice of forum clause should be mandatory in all online contracts it makes good legal sense for the online service providers to limit their exposure to one jurisdiction only thus the online service provider has no other choice but to limit his jurisdiction and forum and the applicable laws on you the user has no other choice to accept the service provider's standard terms and conditions by clicking the on screen i agree yes or i accept clause which is given on the online contract thus the legal legislation in india addresses all avenues of e-contracts however the advancement of technologies will bring in new challenges for both the lawmakers and the government departments the law needs to be updated and upgraded from time to time to keep it evolving for all the technologies i hope now we've all gained perspective with respect to what e-contracts are in our country thank you you