bill: Data protection Bill: Report tabled amid bonhomie | India News – Times of India
NEW DELHI: The joint parliamentary committee’s (JPC) report on the Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019, which recommends wide ranging changes, including widening the scope of the Bill to include non-personal data and pitches for all social media platforms to be declared ‘publishers’ – was tabled in both Houses of Parliament amid a rare spot of bonhomie and cooperation on Thursday.
Congress MP Jairam Ramesh tabled the report in Rajya Sabha amid opposition protests, demanding the revocation of suspension of 12 MPs and the sacking of junior home minister Ajay Mishra Teni. The minister’s son was charged by a special investigation team of having hatched a criminal conspiracy against protesting farmers in Lakhimpur Kheri. “This report shows that if the chairman is cooperative and the government is accommodative, the opposition is responsive,” Ramesh said. In Lok Sabha, the report was tabled by JPC chairman PP Chaudhary.
The result of nearly two years of deliberations, the operative part of the 542-page report is the clause-by-clause examination of the PDP Bill of 2019 and contains 81 recommendations for modifications and over 150 drafting corrections and improvements in various clauses of the Bill.
JPC chairman Chaudhary said the report will have a “global impact” and far-reaching ramifications for handling and protection of personal and non-personal data in the country. He said the PDP Bill, as amended by the JPC, is not only constitutionally compliant, but also goes far beyond the Constitution in so far as reasonable restrictions and safeguards are concerned. “It strikes a fine balance between safeguarding individual liberty and privacy and enhancing the digital economy to serve the public. There are reasonable restrictions for the benefit of the individual and for the security and integrity of the country,” Chaudhary said. As per Parliamentary rules, the PDP Bill, as amended by the JPC, is the draft legislation that will need cabinet clearance before it returns to Parliament for introduction, consideration and passage.
The JPC report also contains seven dissent notes, one each by Congress MPs Jairam Ramesh, Manish Tewari, Vivek Tankha and Gaurav Gogoi, TMC’s Mahua Moitra, BSP’s Ritesh Pandey and BJD’s Amar Patnaik, each flagging, among other things, concerns over the “unbridled powers” certain sections of the Bill accord to the Union government, including power to exempt any government agency from the entire Act. Members also pointed to “inherent design flaws” and objected to the Bill only considering “digital” data within the ambit of personal data, instead of both physical and digital data.
The panel also suggested renaming the proposed legislation as Data Protection Bill, 2021, since it is impossible to make a clear demarcation between personal and non-personal data, recommended setting up a Data Protection Authority and enabling provisions to regulate non-personal data. The report batted heavily for the Union to prepare an extensive policy on data localisation for safe storage of data belonging to Indians, imposed timelines for data fiduciaries to report data breach.
Congress MP Jairam Ramesh tabled the report in Rajya Sabha amid opposition protests, demanding the revocation of suspension of 12 MPs and the sacking of junior home minister Ajay Mishra Teni. The minister’s son was charged by a special investigation team of having hatched a criminal conspiracy against protesting farmers in Lakhimpur Kheri. “This report shows that if the chairman is cooperative and the government is accommodative, the opposition is responsive,” Ramesh said. In Lok Sabha, the report was tabled by JPC chairman PP Chaudhary.
The result of nearly two years of deliberations, the operative part of the 542-page report is the clause-by-clause examination of the PDP Bill of 2019 and contains 81 recommendations for modifications and over 150 drafting corrections and improvements in various clauses of the Bill.
JPC chairman Chaudhary said the report will have a “global impact” and far-reaching ramifications for handling and protection of personal and non-personal data in the country. He said the PDP Bill, as amended by the JPC, is not only constitutionally compliant, but also goes far beyond the Constitution in so far as reasonable restrictions and safeguards are concerned. “It strikes a fine balance between safeguarding individual liberty and privacy and enhancing the digital economy to serve the public. There are reasonable restrictions for the benefit of the individual and for the security and integrity of the country,” Chaudhary said. As per Parliamentary rules, the PDP Bill, as amended by the JPC, is the draft legislation that will need cabinet clearance before it returns to Parliament for introduction, consideration and passage.
The JPC report also contains seven dissent notes, one each by Congress MPs Jairam Ramesh, Manish Tewari, Vivek Tankha and Gaurav Gogoi, TMC’s Mahua Moitra, BSP’s Ritesh Pandey and BJD’s Amar Patnaik, each flagging, among other things, concerns over the “unbridled powers” certain sections of the Bill accord to the Union government, including power to exempt any government agency from the entire Act. Members also pointed to “inherent design flaws” and objected to the Bill only considering “digital” data within the ambit of personal data, instead of both physical and digital data.
The panel also suggested renaming the proposed legislation as Data Protection Bill, 2021, since it is impossible to make a clear demarcation between personal and non-personal data, recommended setting up a Data Protection Authority and enabling provisions to regulate non-personal data. The report batted heavily for the Union to prepare an extensive policy on data localisation for safe storage of data belonging to Indians, imposed timelines for data fiduciaries to report data breach.
