Civil penalties apply for failure to furnish required documents, returns or reports to the Controller or a Certifying Authority. Defaults in filing returns or furnishing prescribed information, books or documents within regulatory time limits may attract daily penalties while the failure continues. Failure to maintain required books of account or records may also attract a daily penalty for the continuing period of non-compliance.

Section 43 establishes compensatory liability for unauthorised access, data extraction, introduction of contaminants or viruses, damage, disruption, denial of authorised access, account manipulation, information interference, and source-code tampering intended to cause damage. Damages by way of compensation are payable to the affected person. Computer contaminants and viruses include harmful instructions affecting data, programmes or normal computer operations, while damage includes destruction, alteration, deletion, addition, modification or rearrangement of a computer resource.

Section 42 requires every subscriber to exercise reasonable care in retaining control of the private key corresponding to the public key in the Digital Signature Certificate and to prevent its disclosure. If the private key is compromised, the subscriber must communicate the compromise without delay in the prescribed manner. Liability continues until the compromise is communicated.

Acceptance of a Digital Signature Certificate is deemed where a subscriber publishes or authorises its publication, including through a repository, or otherwise demonstrates approval. By accepting it, the subscriber certifies to reasonable relying parties that the subscriber holds and is entitled to hold the corresponding private key, that representations and material information given to the Certifying Authority are true, and that certificate information within the subscriber's knowledge is true.

A subscriber accepting a Digital Signature Certificate containing a public key corresponding to the subscriber's private key must generate the corresponding public-private key pair by applying the applicable security procedure. This requirement ensures that the key pair recorded through the certificate is created in accordance with required security safeguards.

Suspension or revocation of a Digital Signature Certificate requires the Certifying Authority to publish notice in the repository identified in the certificate. If more than one repository is specified, publication is mandatory in every designated repository, ensuring notification of the certificate's status through each specified repository.

Revocation of a Digital Signature Certificate may occur on the subscriber's request, death, insolvency, or the dissolution or winding up of a subscribing firm or company. It may also be based on false or concealed material facts, unmet issuance requirements, or a security compromise materially affecting certificate reliability. The subscriber must be given an opportunity to be heard before revocation, and the Certifying Authority must communicate the revocation to the subscriber.

Suspension of a Digital Signature Certificate may occur on the request of the listed subscriber or a duly authorised representative, or where required in the public interest. Suspension cannot continue beyond fifteen days unless the subscriber has been given an opportunity to be heard. The subscriber must be informed once suspension occurs.

Issuance of a Digital Signature Certificate requires certification of legal compliance, subscriber acceptance, availability of the certificate to relying persons, and the subscriber's control of the corresponding private key. The private key must create a digital signature, the public key must verify it, and both must form a functioning key pair. Certificate information must be accurate, and no known material fact may undermine the reliability of these representations.

Electronic signature Certificate applications must be made in the prescribed form, with the prescribed fee and a certification practice statement or regulatory particulars where no such statement exists. The Certifying Authority may conduct enquiries before granting a Certificate. Any rejection must be supported by written reasons, and the applicant must receive a reasonable opportunity to show cause against the proposed rejection.

Certifying Authorities must disclose electronic signature certificates, relevant certification practice statements, certificate revocation or suspension, and facts materially affecting certificate reliability or their ability to provide certification services. Where an event may materially affect computer-system integrity or conditions governing grant of an electronic signature certificate, they must notify persons likely to be affected through reasonable efforts or follow the procedure in their certification practice statements.

Every Certifying Authority whose licence is suspended or revoked must immediately surrender the licence to the Controller. Failure to surrender the licence makes the person in whose favour it was issued liable to a penalty, which may extend to five lakh rupees.

Every Certifying Authority must display its licence conspicuously at the premises where it carries on business. The requirement ensures that the licence is readily visible at the operational site.

Certifying Authorities must ensure that every employee and other person engaged by them complies, while acting in the course of employment or engagement, with the Information Technology Act, 2000, and all rules, regulations, and orders made under it. The provision imposes an institutional compliance responsibility extending beyond the certifying entity itself to persons performing work under its direction or on its behalf.

Certifying Authorities must deploy systems and procedures secure from intrusion and misuse, provide reliable services suited to intended functions, and protect the secrecy and privacy of electronic signatures. They must maintain a repository of issued electronic signature Certificates, publish information on their practices and certificate status, and comply with further regulatory standards.

Section 29 empowers the Controller and authorised persons, on reasonable suspicion of a Chapter contravention, to access computer systems, apparatus, data, and connected material for searches to obtain available information or data. It also permits an order requiring persons responsible for or connected with operating the relevant system, data, apparatus, or material to provide necessary reasonable technical and other assistance.

The Controller or an authorised officer must investigate contraventions of the Information Technology Act, 2000, including breaches of rules or regulations made under it. They may exercise powers equivalent to those conferred on Income-tax authorities, subject to the limitations applicable under the Income-tax Act, 1961.

Written authorisation enables the Controller to delegate any power exercisable under the Chapter regulating Certifying Authorities to a Deputy Controller, Assistant Controller, or any other officer. Delegation must be made in writing and permits the authorised officer to exercise those delegated Controller powers within the Chapter pursuant to that authorisation.

Suspension or revocation of a Certifying Authority's licence requires the Controller to publish notice in the maintained database and, where repositories are specified, in each repository. The database carrying the notice must remain accessible through a website on a round-the-clock basis. Further publicity may be given through appropriate electronic or other media where considered necessary.

Section 25 permits revocation of a Certifying Authority's licence for materially false application statements, breach of licence terms, failure to maintain prescribed procedures and standards, or contravention of applicable legal requirements. Revocation requires a reasonable opportunity to show cause. Pending inquiry, suspension may be ordered where reasonable cause exists to believe a revocation ground is present; suspension exceeding ten days also requires a reasonable opportunity to show cause. A suspended Certifying Authority cannot issue electronic signature Certificates.