Data protection law provision weakens RTI: Opp; Vaishnaw says disclosures won’t be hit

Recalling that the Supreme Court’s Puttaswamy judgment had held privacy to be an integral part of Right to Life, Vaishnaw underlined that protection of personal information was important.  In response to a letter written by Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on March 23, Vaishnaw cited Section 3 of the DPDP Act: “Subject to the provisions of this Act, it shall… (c ), not apply to (ii) personal data that is made or caused to be made publicly available by… (B) any other person who is under the obligation under any law for the time being in force in India to make such personal data publicly available.”

“Any personal information that is subject to disclosure under legal obligations under various laws governing our public representatives and welfare programmes like MGNREGA, etc, will continue to be disclosed under the RTI Act. In fact, the amendment will not restrict disclosure of personal information, rather it aims to strengthen the privacy rights of the individuals and prevent the potential misuse of the law,” Vaishnaw said.

Ramesh had written to Vaishnaw that the law had completely eliminated the “proviso in Section 8 (1) (j) of the RTI Act 2005 that gives citizens equal right to information as legislators who represent them”, adding that this change was unwarranted as the original RTI Act “had enough guardrails to protect unwarranted invasion of privacy”.  He had urged the minister to “pause, review and repeal section 44 (3) of the Data Protection Act 2023, which destroys the RTI Act 2005”.

Opposition leaders like Rahul Gandhi, Akhilesh Yadav, K C Venugopal and John Brittas had also written to Vaishnaw to repeal Section 44 (3) of the Act, as it “amends the Right to Information”. They stated that the amendment to section 8 (1) (j) of the RTI Act, as introduced by section 44 (3) of the DPDP Act, seeks to exempt all personal information from disclosure.

Amendments made through the DPDP Act drastically weaken the RTI Act and will have a detrimental impact on fundamental right to information, they had said.

At the joint press conference Thursday, Gogoi said, “Citizens have rights and governments must protect these. The BJP thinks they have all the rights and citizens must obey them.”

Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Priyanka Chaturvedi said, “They will make you a data fiduciary if you are handling data for investigative journalism, make you accountable and also impose heavy fines.”

“You are taking RTI towards ‘road to ignorance’, so that people do not get to know about any corruption. The DPDP Act in 2019 had no such provision, in 2021, after it went to the JPC, no such provision was there either. In 2023 they brought in these provisions which will make RTI null and void,” she said.

Some weeks back, a clutch of organisations dealing with RTI and internet freedom launched a campaign against a section of the Act which, they said, amends section 8 (1) (j) of the RTI Act by imposing a blanket ban on disclosure of personal information without consent.