Section 7 of ITA, 2000 : Section 7: Retention Of Electronic Records

Explanation using Example

Let's consider a hypothetical scenario to understand the application of Section 7 of The Information Technology Act, 2000. Imagine a company named 'XYZ Corp.' which is required by law to retain all its financial records for a period of 7 years. Traditionally, these records were maintained in paper form. However, with the advancement in technology, 'XYZ Corp.' decided to go paperless and started maintaining these records in electronic form.

According to Section 7, this is perfectly legal and satisfies the legal requirement of record retention, provided that:

• The electronic records of the financial transactions are accessible and usable for future reference (for instance, during a financial audit).
• The electronic records are retained in the format in which they were originally generated, sent or received (for instance, if the records were originally created as Excel files, they should be retained as such or in a format that accurately represents the original information).
• The electronic records contain details that facilitate identification of their origin, destination, date and time of dispatch or receipt (for instance, the records show from which department the financial record originated, to whom it was sent, and when).

Note that, this law does not apply if there is another law that expressly provides for the retention of documents, records or information in the form of electronic records.