After Lok Sabha nod, data protection bill in Rajya Sabha today

Minister for Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw will table the bill in the Rajya Sabha.

Bringing India closer to its first data protection law, Minister for Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) Ashwini Vaishnaw will move for the passing of the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Bill in the Rajya Sabha on August 9.

The bill was passed by the Lok Sabha on August 7 amid protests from the Opposition. In Rajya Sabha, the ruling NDA coalition is short of the majority mark, setting the stage for a political showdown.

A Rajya Sabha bulletin read, "Shri Ashwini Vaishnaw to move that the Bill... as passed by Lok Sabha, be taken into consideration. Also to move that the Bill be passed."

If the bill clears the Rajya Sabha hurdle, it will be enacted into law after the President's assent.

The law has been sought by various sections of society ever since the Right to Privacy was deemed as fundamental – with reasonable restrictions – by the Supreme Court in 2016.

Since then, the idea of a data protection bill has gone through several forms and shapes. A Personal Data Protection (PDP) Bill was introduced in 2018 and tabled in 2019, after which it was referred to a joint parliamentary committee. The panel studied the bill for two years and presented its report and a modified PDP Bill in December 2021.

But in 2022, the government withdrew the PDP Bill, citing compliance-related reasons and came out with the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill after a few months. The cabinet approved the bill in July, clearing its way to be tabled in the ongoing monsoon session.