E-Paper
Winter Session: JPC likely to table report Personal Data Protection Bill today
The Personal Data Protection Bill was brought in Parliament in 2019 and sought to provide for the protection of personal data of individuals and also establish a Data Protection Authority for the same.
The Joint Committee of Parliament (JPC), which was examining the Personal Data Protection Bill, is expected to table its report on the floor of the House on Tuesday, according to news agency PTI.
The Personal Data Protection Bill was brought in Parliament in 2019 and sought to provide for the protection of personal data of individuals and also establish a Data Protection Authority for the same. The bill also seeks to regulate the use of the data of individuals by the government and private companies.
The bill was referred to the JPC for a careful examination, after opposition leaders opposed its certain provisions, including giving unbridled powers to the government and its agencies for use of personal data.
On December 16, the JPC tabled the report on the Personal Data Protection Bill in both the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha. Hindustan Times earlier said that the report carried numerous suggestions including giving the government a wider berth on obligations and private companies a stricter guardrail to follow.
However, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and Lok Sabha MP P P Chaudhary moved a motion on the same day seeking extension up to the last week of Parliament's winter session for the JCP to submit its report. The winter session will end on Thursday.
And in November, the JPC adopted the report on the bill, which gave the government the powers to provide exemptions to its probe agencies from the provisions of the Act. This move was opposed by five opposition MPs- Congress’s Jairam Ramesh, Manish Tewari and Gaurav Gogoi, and the TMC’s Derek O’Brien and Mahua Moitra- who had filed dissent notes before the beginning of the winter session of Parliament.
