New Delhi: The Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, 2023 was tabled in Lok Sabha on Thursday. Union Communications, Electronics, and Information Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw tabled it amid strong opposition by Opposition leaders who claimed it violates the fundamental right to privacy. The Opposition demanded that the Bill should be sent to the standing committee for scrutiny, as the government had withdrawn a Bill on data protection last year and the new bill needs more scrutiny.
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What is the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill ?
— Rajeev Chandrasekhar 🇮🇳 (@Rajeev_GoI) August 3, 2023 " class="align-text-top noRightClick twitterSection" data="
➡️ #DPDPBill introduced in #Parliament is a very significant milestone in PM @narendramodi ji's vision of Global Standard Cyber Laws for India's $1T #DigitalEconomy & #IndiaTechade
➡️ @GoI_MeitY has developed this bill after… pic.twitter.com/a8tHXJl537
">What is the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill ?
— Rajeev Chandrasekhar 🇮🇳 (@Rajeev_GoI) August 3, 2023
➡️ #DPDPBill introduced in #Parliament is a very significant milestone in PM @narendramodi ji's vision of Global Standard Cyber Laws for India's $1T #DigitalEconomy & #IndiaTechade
➡️ @GoI_MeitY has developed this bill after… pic.twitter.com/a8tHXJl537What is the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill ?
— Rajeev Chandrasekhar 🇮🇳 (@Rajeev_GoI) August 3, 2023
➡️ #DPDPBill introduced in #Parliament is a very significant milestone in PM @narendramodi ji's vision of Global Standard Cyber Laws for India's $1T #DigitalEconomy & #IndiaTechade
➡️ @GoI_MeitY has developed this bill after… pic.twitter.com/a8tHXJl537
Vaishnav claimed this bill is not a money bill and all issues raised by the opposition will be answered during the debate. Meanwhile, Mos for Electronics and Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar said the bill will protect the rights of all citizens. He took to Twitter and wrote, "DPDPBill introduced in #Parliament is a very significant milestone in PM @narendramodi ji's vision of Global Standard Cyber Laws for India's $1T #DigitalEconomy and #IndiaTechade. @GoI_MeitY has developed this bill after extensive consultations which I led - with all stakeholders including #DigitalNagriks."
Explaining more, he said, "This new Bill after it is passed by Parliament, will protect the rights of ALL citizens, allow the innovation economy to expand, and permit Govt's lawful n legitimate access in national security and emergencies like pandemics and earthquakes, etc." He mentioned, “DPDPBill is a global standard, Contemporary, FutureReady yet simple and easy to understand."
Hours after Congress leader Manish Tewari said the government might get the Digital Data Protection Bill classified as a money bill, Union IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw refuted the charge and termed it a 'normal bill.' Tewari earlier in the day suggested that the Data Protection Bill should be considered a regular bill while noting that it should again go to a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC). But as the bill was moved in the Lok Sabha, Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) Vaishnaw rejected the suggestions that it was a money bill and called it a 'normal bill.'
The bill aims to make entities such as internet companies, mobile apps, and business houses more accountable and answerable about the collection, storage and processing of data of citizens as part of the Right to Privacy. "How Did the Digital Data Protection Bill get classified as a Financial bill suddenly," Tewari tweeted.
"It needs to be considered as a regular bill and go to a JPC again," he said. "If this bill on passage is certified as a money bill by Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla which seems to be the intent of getting it classed as a Financial Bill then Rajya Sabha can not vote on it. It can only recommend non-binding changes to Lok Sabha," the Congress MP from Punjab said. He also shared a copy of the presidential order classifying the bill as a money bill, and said, "The latest iteration of this Bill mocks the efforts put in by the Joint Committee of Parliament on the Data Protection Bill led by two BJP members P P Chaudhary and Meenakshi Lekhi respectively."
Government sources said the President's assent had been sought as funds will be earmarked under the proposed law from the Consolidated Fund of India. They said the penalties that will come under the law and the expenditure on the staff required under the law will be under the Consolidated Fund of India. The work on the data protection bill started after the Supreme Court ruled that the Right to Privacy is a fundamental right. The government had in August last year withdrawn the personal data protection bill, which was first presented in late 2019 and issued a new version of the draft bill in November 2022.
The draft bill had earned criticism around the government getting the power to exempt entities from various clauses of the bill. He refuted allegations levelled by Rajya Sabha member John Brittas that the DPDP bill has been shared with the Standing Committee of Communications and IT before its introduction in Parliament. "He was wrong. I have very gently and politely pointed out to him that he was trying to misinform and create a fake narrative. The bill was never referred to the standing committee," Chandrasekhar said.
The minister said that the standing committee has on its own evaluated the issue of citizen's privacy and data protection, looked at the earlier draft and commented. "They are well within their rights to do so. I think Brittas has tried to characterise it as some sort of backdoor by which the committee has got a copy of the bill in advance and members did not. I think this is a wrong characterisation," Chandrasekhar said. Brittas is also a member of the committee.
