New Delhi: While there is no certainty whether the Narendra Modi government will introduce the Digital Data Protection (DPDP) Bill, 2022 in the ongoing session of Parliament, Opposition MPs who are part of the Standing Committee on Information Technology (IT) have expressed serious concern about protection of privacy in the draft and may have as many as 40 suggestions for the government to make it better.Recently, in an article for The Wire, member of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on IT Karti Chidambaram flagged several issues that concern them including broad-ranging powers to the Central government to exempt itself or its agencies from complying to the Act and on the independence of the Data Protection Board. “The now withdrawn Personal data Protection Bill 2019 also had broad exemptions to the government and its agencies, but such exemptions were subject to safeguards and oversight mechanisms,” Chidambaram had said, highlighting the difference between the 2019 draft and the revised one. Posing “a big question mark” on the functioning of the Board, he wrote, “How can the Board be called an ‘independent’ regulator, when the appointments, removal of the chairperson and governing body is decided by the government?”Yet another pertinent point he raised was children’s safety. “It has given itself the power to exempt entities from complying with the Act while processing data of children. This is concerning given that a study by Human Rights Watch found that government apps such as Diksha and e-Pathshala were engaging in practices that infringed the data privacy of children.”Chidambaram’s article was in response to the Union IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw claiming that the draft 2022 Bill had got a “big thumbs up” from the Parliamentary Standing Committee on IT. The Congress MP had asked the minister in return as to how could he say that, when the Bill was not even introduced in Parliament, let alone be referred to it for perusal.The Ministry had released the revised draft of the Bill in the public domain on November 18, 2022. Though the government had informed the Supreme Court in January that it would introduce the Bill in the budget session, there is no certainly about it yet. Once the Bill is introduced in the Parliament, the Lok Sabha Speaker or the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha can send it to the Standing Committee for further consultation and suggestions.Speaking to the Economic Times, two other members of the Standing Committee – TMC MP Jawahar Sircar and CPI(M) MP John Brittas – have also expressed concerns over the draft Bill including “unchecked and unbridled powers” with the Board and the government, “excessive centralisation of power” and “blanket exemptions to some data fiduciaries”.“We may have more than 40 suggestions for the draft Bill in its current form,” Brittas told the newspaper. He said the Bill doesn’t uphold the 2017 right to privacy verdict of the apex court which protects privacy as a fundamental right under the Constitution. ‘This is a major concern,” he underlined.Sircar said, “Another concern is the impact the Bill has on the Right to Information Act as it proposes to amend it.” The news report said the Bill proposes to omit the clause in the RTI Act, 2005 which allows public authorities to refuse access to information if it intrudes on the privacy of an individual but permits disclosure of information if there is an overriding public interest.
