Panel adopts report on data protection Bill, 7 MPs dissent

Aditi Tandon

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Tribune News Service

New Delhi, November 22

The Joint Committee of Parliament (JCP) examining the Personal Data Protection Bill 2019 adopted its report on Monday with seven Opposition MPs submitting dissenting notes to various provisions of the draft law that seeks to regulate personal data processing mechanisms in the country.

Report to be tabled in winter session

The Background

• July 31, 2017: Govt sets up panel headed by Justice BN Srikrishna. Panel submits report on July 27, 2018, based on which Personal Data Protection Bill 2019 drafted.
• August 24, 2017: SC declares privacy a fundamental right
• September 26, 2018: SC asks govt to draft a data protection regime
• Dec 11, 2019: Ex- IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad introduces Bill in Lok Sabha. JCP set up to look at Bill

Key Objectives 

• Set up Data Protection Authority to protect personal data of people
• Will specify provisions relating to social media intermediary (Facebook, Twitter, etc) whose actions can impact security of state
• Lay down obligations on entities collecting personal data
• Govern processing of data by govts, private Indian& foreign cos
• Empower Centre to exempt any govt agency from proposed law
• Impose fines and penalties for contravention of legislation

Congress leaders Jairam Ramesh, Manish Tewari, Gaurav Gogoi and Vivek Tankha, Trinamool Congress’ Derek O’ Brien and Mahua Moitra and BJD’s Amar Patnaik dissented, with the TMC terming the provisions of the Bill “Orwellian”.

The majority Opposition questioned provisions of the draft law that allow the government to exempt its agencies, including the CBI and ED, from the entire legislation on the grounds of sovereignty and integrity of India, friendly relations with foreign states, security of the state and public order.

The issue is all set to rile the Opposition ahead of the winter session of Parliament starting November 29 with non-NDA outfits already agitating against ordinances extending the tenures of ED and CBI chiefs. Congress chief whip in the Rajya Sabha Jairam Ramesh in his dissenting note to panel chairman PP Chaudhary questioned Section 35 of the Bill, saying it gave almost unbridled powers to the Centre to exempt any of its agencies from the entire Act itself.

“I had suggested amendments whereby the Centre would have to get parliamentary approval for granting such exemption to its agencies. I was willing to compromise provided the JCP recommended the reasons for exemption that would be recorded in writing (as provided for in the Bill) would be tabled in both Houses but even that was not found acceptable,” Jairam said.

He recalled Justice Srikrishna Committee Report 2018 on right to privacy had identified security of the state as the sole interest that should be privileged under exceptional conditions. Jairam also dissented from provisions of Section 12(a)(i) of the Bill to create exceptions for governments and its agencies from the provisions of consent while processing personal data.

“I had recommended changes to make the exemption less sweeping and less automatic. The JCP’s report allows two years for private companies to migrate to the new data protection regime but the government and its agencies have no such stipulation,” Jairam said in his note. Tewari rejected the entire Bill, citing design flaws and said a Bill that sought to provide blanket exemptions to the state and its instrumentalities was ultra vires.

TMC’s Derek and Moitra raised the “Orwellian nature of the Bill and improper functioning of the committee.” They opposed the proposals for the inclusion of non-personal data within the legislation. The report will now be tabled in the winter session.