More IT committee members dismiss minister's claim on nod to data protection bill

The Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha were adjourned till 2 pm and 2:30 pm respectively.

More members of the Standing Committee on Communications and IT have come forward to dismiss Electronics and Information Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw's claim that the panel had approved the draft data protection bill in advance, before it was tabled in Parliament.

On March 2, Vaishnaw claimed that the committee had given a "big thumbs up" to the draft Digital Personal Data Protection Bill. Later, the same evening, Lok Sabha MP and member of the committee Karti P Chidambaram labelled Vaishnaw's claims as 'untrue'.

Now, Rajya Sabha MP Jawhar Sircar and Lok Sabha MP John Brittas, both members of the committee, have chimed into the controversy and slammed Vaishnaw's statements.

In a tweet Sircar said: "No - the IT Standing Committee has NOT cleared the Data Protection Bill. We are members -- we know." He tagged Lok Sabha MPs Mahua Moitra, John Brittas and a few others in the tweet.

"It’s to be noted that at the preliminary discussion, numerous concerns over various provisions of the Data Protection Bill were aired and the IT Secretary had assured to revert. Nothing has happened after that.. @ShashiTharoor," Brittas said in another tweet.

Brittas and Chidambaram are referring to a Standing Committee meeting that was held in December 2022 regarding citizen's data and privacy. As part of the meeting, Chidambaram had said that the DPDP Bill was discussed among the members.

"Members raised a number of issues with the draft," the Lok Sabha MP of Sivaganga constituency said, but clarified that the Bill, according to Parliamentary procedures, have  not been sent to the  committee yet.

Former member of the committee and Lok Sabha MP Shashi Tharoor said that he hopes that the bill will be sent to the committee.

In response to tweets by Chidambaram, Tharoor said, "That’s worrying. A Bill of this importance should benefit from widespread consultation& support to be effective. Hope it is formally referred to the Committee. After so many delays a couple of months won’t matter."

In 2022, the government published the draft DPDP Bill after it withdrew the PDP Bill 2019. The revised bill focuses only on personal data, thereby doing away with regulating the use of non-personal data.

The draft bill requires a data fiduciary i.e. an entity that processes user data -- to give notice to users on data sought to be collected in clear and plain language. It also mandates that the user should be allowed the right to give, manage, and withdraw consent from sharing information.

Apart from this, the bill states that the data fiduciary shall not undertake tracking or behavioural monitoring of children or advertising directed at children. It mandates penalties of up to Rs 500 crore for non-compliance.