Private and public key; Cyber Appellate Tribunal

(i) Private key and public key. In an asymmetric crypto system the two keys form a key pair: a private key and its mathematically related public key, “so related that the public key can verify a digital signature created by the private key” (section 2(1)(x) of the Information Technology Act, 2000). The private key is the key of the pair used to create a digital signature (section 2(1)(zc)); the public key is the one used to verify it, so the signer keeps the private key and the person relying on the signature uses the public key.

(ii) Cyber appellate tribunal. The IT Act originally set up a Cyber Appellate Tribunal. The Finance Act, 2017 omitted its constitution provisions (sections 49 to 52C) and substituted section 48: “the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal established under section 14 of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India Act, 1997” is now the Appellate Tribunal for the purposes of the IT Act, exercising the jurisdiction, powers and authority the Act confers, in the matters and places the Central Government notifies. A person aggrieved by an order of the Controller or an adjudicating officer may appeal to it (section 57(1)), though not against an adjudicating officer's order made with the consent of the parties (section 57(2)). Every proceeding before the Tribunal is deemed a judicial proceeding for the purposes of sections 193, 196 and 228 of the Indian Penal Code, and the Tribunal is deemed a civil court for the Criminal Procedure Code, 1973 (its section 195 and Chapter XXVI) (section 58(3)).