In its report on Citizen’s Data Security and Privacy, tabled in Lok Sabha Tuesday, the Parliamentary panel on Communications and Information Technology has recommended enactment of the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Bill “without any further delay”. The report is seen as a precursor to the introduction of the much-awaited draft law. Adoption of the report, however, saw the Opposition accusing the government of trampling on rules to give the Bill a “backdoor entry”. Opposition parties say they apprehend that the manner in which the report was rammed ahead indicates the government is bent upon getting the DPDP Bill passed in its new form without getting it discussed in the standing committee. The government has listed the Bill in the list of proposed legislation; it is scheduled to be taken up Thursday. Sources in the government hinted that the Bill, expected to ease cross-border data flow and lower the age of consent for accessing internet services while maintaining exemptions available to the Centre and its agencies, is less likely to go to another committee for dissection. This, a source said, is because it was “already before the standing committees at least three times: once with the select committee, then with a select committee, and finally there was the process of public consultation for five months to make it more comprehensive”. The source said, “There is a general feeling that legislation on this is already delayed. It cannot go into another loop now, because there is rampant misuse of personal data and a law is necessary to contain that.” The committee’s report was tabled in Parliament with a dissent note by CPI(M) Rajya Sabha member John Brittas attached to it. The final version of the Bill, cleared by the Union Cabinet last month, has not been formally referred to the House panel so far. The developments over the Bill started on July 26, when IT panel chairman Pataprao Jadhav said the committee will approve the report. A draft report was circulated among the panel members before the meeting but Opposition members later said adoption of such a report would have been a violation of existing rules and an impropriety, as the committee was not privy to the final Bill approved by the Cabinet. Opposition MPs in the IT panel — TMC’s Mahua Moitra and Jawahar Sircar, DMK’s T Sumathy, Congress’s Karti P Chidambaram and TDP’s Jayadev Galla, besides Brittas — walked out as Jadhav decided to go for a vote. Brittas, however, insisted that his dissent note should be attached to the final report. BJP’s Nishikant Dubey told The Indian Express that Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in Lok Sabha allow House committees to pass any decision or report with a majority. Opposition MPs alleged that the government had put pressure on the IT panel to pass the report without letting the committee go through provisions of the new Bill. They noted that they were not privy to the draft of the new Bill that is already cleared by the Union Cabinet. In a subsequent Twitter exchange between Brittas and Union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar, the CPI(M) MP on Monday, echoing his dissent note, tweeted that “the ruling party has no hesitation to trample on the rules and regulations,” and that adoption of the committee’s report on the Bill was “another instance”. Replying on Tuesday, Chandrasekhar said Brittas’s tweet was “misinformation and completely wrong” and no Bill can be referred to any committee unless it is done so by Parliament. “In turn, the Bill can only be referred to committee after the Cabinet-approved Bill is introduced in Parliament. DPDP Bill has not been introduced in Parliament and so the question of considering it in committee does not arise,” he posted.
