Winter Session of Parliament | Joint committee on Data Protection Bill to present its report in both Houses today

The Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019, introduced in Lok Sabha on December 11, 2019 by the then Union Minister of Electronics and Information Technology, Ravi Shankar Prasad, seeks to provide for protection of personal data of individuals, and establishes a Data Protection Authority, according to the PRS Legislative Research.

The Bill, which contains 98 clauses, was referred to the joint committee headed by BJP MP Meenakshi Lekhi in December 2019. Lekhi was replaced as chairperson by another BJP MP, PP Chaudhary, after she became the minister in Union cabinet in July 2021.

Also, read: Data protection bill is Orwellian, loaded in favour of the government: Justice BN Srikrishna

The 30-member panel was expected to submit its report in the Budget Session of Parliament in February. But panel chairman, PP Chaudhary moved a motion in July seeking extension up to the Winter Session of Parliament for the panel to submit its report. That was for the fifth time the committee's tenure was extended before the sixth extension on December 1.

Some of the panel members, including Congress leader Jairam Ramesh, have dissented to certain aspects of the Bill. The draft of the Bill has called for storing sensitive personal data in India, obligations of data fiduciaries to deploy safeguards, and grievance redressal mechanism.

Also, read: Why India must fortify its data privacy laws

The proposal for the Bill came after the Supreme Court declared in 2017 privacy a fundamental right and directed the government to come up with the data protection regime.