New personal data protection bill ‘at the earliest’: Govt to SC

According to a short affidavit submitted by the Centre before a constitution bench, the Union ministry for electronics and technology (MeitY) has floated the Digital Data Protection Bill, 2022, and initiated the process of consultation with the public and other stakeholders.

The Union government intends to introduce a new bill on personal data protection in the Parliament “at the earliest”, an affidavit filed by the Centre in the Supreme Court has said, even as the government refrained from specifying a timeline to do so.

In its affidavit, the government further pointed out that there are existing rules framed under the Information Technology Act, casting an obligation on intermediaries as well as body corporates handling sensitive personal data to ascertain protection of such data. (HT)

According to a short affidavit submitted by the Centre before a constitution bench, the Union ministry for electronics and technology (MeitY) has floated the Digital Data Protection Bill, 2022, and initiated the process of consultation with the public and other stakeholders.

“MeitY initiated a stakeholder consultation exercise on the draft Bill, inviting comments from the public on November 18, 2022, the last date for receipt of which was January 2, 2023. MeitY is in the process of collating and analysing the feedback and suggestions received, with a view to take the draft Bill forward,” said the four-page affidavit.

It added: “As is evident from the above steps taken and consultations initiated, MeitY, subject to fulfilment of procedural requirements, intends to introduce the aforesaid bill in Parliament at the earliest.”

In its affidavit, the government further pointed out that there are existing rules framed under the Information Technology Act, casting an obligation on intermediaries as well as body corporates handling sensitive personal data to ascertain protection of such data.

A constitution bench, comprising justices KM Joseph, Ajay Rastogi, Aniruddha Bose, Hrishikesh Roy and CT Ravikumar will hear the matter on Tuesday. The bench is examining a 2016 WhatsApp privacy policy allowing data sharing with Facebook and all its group companies for the purposes of commercial advertising and marketing. This policy was challenged by two law students – Karmanya Singh Sareen and Shreya Sethi as being violative of their fundamental right to privacy.

On the last date of hearing in September, the court had questioned the Centre over its delay in framing a law to protect the data privacy of its citizens despite right to privacy being declared a fundamental right by the top court in 2017. At that time, solicitor general Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre, told the court that the concerns of the petitioners will be met by the law to be brought by government, saying that the Personal Data Privacy Bill was tabled in Parliament in 2019, scrutinised by a joint committee of Parliament, and later withdrawn in August this year to make way for a more comprehensive law based on suggestions and amendments proposed by the House panel.

But the bench, during the proceedings on September 29, remarked: “If you were so keen to have legislation, you could have brought it by now...You have endlessly kept the matter going.” While posting the matter to January 17, the bench had then said that the case will proceed on the next date irrespective of whether a law is in place or not. “The point is to secure the rights of users. If law can provide a solution, a reasonable time can be fixed to bring the law. Otherwise, we will have it listed and proceed with arguments in the case,” it added.

The Union government in November made public a draft data Digital Data Protection Bill -- the fourth iteration of a planned law that is meant to give the legal framework to the 2017 Supreme Court ruling on the right to privacy.

The new draft has attracted both praise and criticism, the first for its light-touch and technology agnostic approach to regulating a dynamic space, and the second for the significant exemptions it grants to governments and government agencies when it comes to using the data of individuals.

Speaking at a Google India 2022 event on December 19, Union information and technology minister Ashwini Vaishnaw had said that the new bill is likely to be introduced in Parliament during the monsoon session later this year, include laying down certain conditions for how personal data — defined as “any data about an individual who is identifiable by or in relation to such data” — of Indian citizens will be handled, the obligations of those that collect it and the powers of the government in accessing such information. The next monsoon session of the Parliament is expected to commence in July 2023.