IT Committee may give clean chit to Data Protection Bill in Parliament, members divided

The Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, is set to be tabled in the Parliament in the ongoing Monsoon Session

Despite protests from Opposition members of the Standing Parliamentary Committee on Communications and IT, the committee may table a report in the Parliament endorsing the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Bill, giving it a clean chit, sources said. No changes have been recommended in its report.

However, a dissent note has also been prepared by a member criticising the sweeping powers the bill gives to the government and its agencies.

It is important to note that bills may be referred to committees only after they are tabled in the Parliament. It is unclear as to how, or under what regulations the committee adopted its report, since the DPDP Bill has not yet been introduced in the Parliament.

This comes at a time when the DPDP Bill is set to be tabled in Parliament during the ongoing Monsoon Session. This will set the ball rolling on India's data protection law, which has been sought ever since the Right to Privacy was deemed as fundamental (with reasonable restrictions) by the Supreme Court in 2017.

Also read: Why the monsoon session of Parliament is crucial for data, privacy

A few days ago, the Shiv Sena MP Jadhav Prataprao Ganpatrao-headed committee adopted the report of the bill. However, this was met with the chagrin of the committee's Opposition members, who said that the modified version of the bill, which had been cleared by the Union Cabinet, was not made available to them. Many of these members staged a walkout from the meeting.

What does the report say

In its 40-page report that was adopted by the committee, sources said it has given a clean chit to the DPDP Bill, and no changes have been recommended. The report says that the bill should be enacted into a law "without any undue delay," people close to the matter said.

Attributing to the contents of the report, sources said implementation of the bill will be a "turning point in the domain of data processing", and that it will ensure the "safeguarding of personal information and fostering trust" in the digital ecosystem.

Sources said that the report also says that the committee maintains "a firm belief" that the ministry "will not be complacent", and that it will improve the legislation whenever necessary.

Dissent note

A dissent note has also been prepared by a member of the committee who is not aligned with the views adopted in the report.

Concerns have been raised in the dissent note regarding "blanket exemptions" from the provisions of the bill for selected government entities. It suggests that these exemptions will lead to a violation of the Right to Privacy.

The dissent note has also criticised the government's role in the appointment of the members of the Data Protection Authority (DPA), in the provisions of the bill. The note criticised the DPA of becoming a "puppet of the Centre".

Also read: New data protection bill gives way more (and worse) exemptions to govt than PDP Bill: Justice Srikrishna

The note also criticises the report for claiming that the growth in cybercrime can be combated or India's defences can be bolstered by the data protection bill. "These are unrelated issues," it says.