The Lok Sabha on Monday passed the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, 2023, which lays down the obligations of entities handling and processing data as well as the rights of individuals. The House also passed four other Bills Moving the personal data protection Bill for consideration and passage amid sloganeering by Opposition MPs, Union IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said the Opposition had little concern for issues such as public welfare and the protection of people's personal data, and are thus protesting. “The Bill aims to safeguard the digital personal data of 140 crore Indians,” Vaishnaw noted. He said extensive public consultation was held before bringing the Bill to Parliament, including vetting of the draft by 48 organisations and 39 ministries. The Bill proposes a maximum penalty of Rs 250 crore and a minimum of Rs 50 crore on entities violating the norms. Its norms will apply on personal data collected within India from data principals online, and personal data collected offline, but subsequently digitised. Vaishnaw also pointed out that the language of the Bill is simple and gender-neutral, and uses (the pronouns) ‘she’ and ‘her’ in place of ‘he’ and ‘his’. The Bill will also apply to such processing outside India if it is for offering goods or services to individuals in India. The Centre retains the power to restrict the transfer of personal data to any country, or territory outside India, as per the Bill. While supporting it, YSRCP member Krishna Lavu raised concerns over the Bill letting data be used by the state governments for profiling voters, and how it proposed amendments to RTI Act regarding personal information, which earlier enabled the revelation of certain corruption cases. AIMIM’s Syed Imtiaz Jaleel raised concern over what he called is “excessive Centralisation” being brought about, and allowing the Centre to “censor” content. TDP’s Jayadev Galla said even as the country needs data protection legislation, the present Bill is overly tilted towards the Union government. Quoting George Orwell, BSP’s Ritesh Panday said, “The government has exclusively retained all the powers with itself regarding data protection, even as it is the biggest collector of public data in the country.” Some amendments moved by Opposition members were defeated by a voice vote. Vaishnaw had tabled the Bill in Lok Sabha on August 3. The Opposition had demanded that it be sent to the Parliamentary standing committee for scrutiny. While moving the Bill, the minister had also rejected the Opposition’s allegations that it was a money Bill and had called it a "normal Bill". The Bill has retained the contents of the original version of the legislation proposed last November, including those that were red-flagged by privacy experts, such as exemptions for the Centre. In its new avatar, the proposed law seemingly accords virtual censorship powers to the Centre. The Bill will now have to be passed by Rajya Sabha before it becomes law. Other Bills passed On Monday, the Lok Sabha passed an amendment Bill to decriminalise offences committed in carrying out coastal aquaculture activities and ensure ease of doing business. Union minister Parshottam K Rupala said the fishermen community will welcome the Bill. The Lower House passed a Bill allowing those qualified or registered under Jammu & Kashmir Pharmacy Act to be registered as pharmacists under the Pharmacy Act, thus doing away with the ambiguity regarding the two pieces of legislation. Piloting the Pharmacy (Amendment) Bill, 2023, Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said changes will increase job opportunities for the youth of J&K. The House gave assent to the Mediation Bill, 2023, which the Rajya Sabha had cleared on August 1. Replying to the discussion on the bill, Law and Justice Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal said mediation is not a new concept for an ancient country such as India. “The government brought the Bill so that problems of people, especially of the poor, are solved.,” he said. Noting that nearly 70,000 cases are pending in Supreme Court, 60 lakh cases in high courts, and almost 4 crore cases in district and subordinate courts, Meghwal said the government has given priority to reduce pendency of cases in courts and that mediation centres will get legal support through this Bill. The House also passed Anusandhan National Research Foundation Bill to “enable rationalisation and democratisation of human resource and research funding, boost innovation and start-ups and reaffirm India's role as a global player”, Union minister Jitendra Singh said. An estimated outlay of Rs 50,000 crore has been allotted to NRF for the next five years (2023-28).
