FAQ ON JOINT PARLIAMENTARY COMMITTEE ON PERSONAL DATA PROTECTION BILL, 2019

What is a Joint Parliamentary Committee?
A Parliamentary Committee can either be a standing committee or an ad hoc committee. An ad hoc committee is formed through a motion passed in a house and is not found in the Rules of Procedure of the House. It is formed for a particular purpose and duration and comes to end after it reports to the house on that particular subject. Ad hoc committee can generally be a Select Committee or a Joint Select Committee for Bill, also known as a Joint Parliamentary Committee. A Joint Select Committee constitutes members of both the houses of parliament. The motion for formation of such a committee is to be passed by both the houses of the parliament.

The committee that was formed for the consideration of Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019 on 11 December 2019 is an ad hoc Joint Select Committee also called as a Joint Parliamentary Committee. It was formed by the virtue of the motion passed by Lok Sabha on 11 December 2019 during the winter session of the Parliament.

Who were the members of the Joint Parliamentary Committee?
The Joint Parliamentary Committee for this bill was constituted on 11 December 2019.This committee was formed in order to better scrutinize the provisions of the bill as it was heavily criticized by Justice B.N. Srikrishna and other stakeholders for giving too many powers to the government. Initially, Meenakshi Lekhi was the Chairperson of the Committee. However subsequent to her appointment as a Minister in the Union Cabinet, P P Chaudhary was appointed as the Chairperson in mid 2021. There are 30 members in the JPC. Members of the JPC are:

What does this Joint Parliamentary Committee mean for the Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019?

The Personal Data Protection Bill is a crucial piece of legislation and has been in the Limbo for a while. The roots of the bill can be traced to the Puttuswamy Judgment. The legal debate of individual privacy and data protection in the matter of Aadhaar put data protection on the policy-making map of India and it was realised by the policy makers that there is a need to have a comprehensive legislation to deal with personal information of individuals, especially in the digital space. The bill will be governing an essential part of privacy of an individual. After the 2019 Bill was presented there were multiple concerns raised by different stakeholders related to powers granted to the Government to access personal data, functioning of social media intermediaries under the bill and constitution of Data Protection Authority. The formation of this committee was expected to make the process of drafting the bill more nuanced and democratic with the detailed discussion taking place with stakeholders and the members of the Parliament. It was also reported that the Bill is expected to “undergo complete transformation” with committee review. 

There have been a total of 72 sittings of the Committee spread over a span of almost 2 years. Multiple stakeholders from various industries, like Jio Platforms Ltd, OLA, CYBLE, Mastercard India Services have also deposed before the committee. The committee also invited representatives from Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam Center and NUJS, a national law university in West Bengal.

SFLC.IN had written to Ms. Meenakshi Lekhi, Chairperson, Joint Parliamentary Committee on Data Protection Bill urging her to have a wide and diverse stakeholder consultation process for the draft Data Protection Bill.  The link of the letter can be found here.

What has happened so far?

On 28 July 2017 an expert committee was set up under the chairmanship of Justice B. N. Srikrishna to analyse the issues related to data protection, privacy and recommend ways to protect it and also present a draft bill. The committee presented its report to the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology in 2018 along with a draft of Personal Data Protection Bill. Then on 11 December 2019 The Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019 was introduced in the Lok Sabha by the Minister of Electronics and Information Technology, Mr. Ravi Shankar Prasad. It was said to be based on the recommendations Justice B. N. Srikrishna Committee Report. 

In terms of the Parliamentary Process, this stage is referred to as the First Reading of the Bill. Subsequent to this is the Second Reading. This further contains two stages, in the first stage there is a discussion on the principles of the bill and the house may pass a motion to refer the bill to a select committee or a joint committee. It was at this stage that the Lok Sabha referred the bill to the Joint Committee on 11 December 2019. The report was to be submitted in the next budget session for 2020, however, this deadline got extended 5 times. On 22 November 2021, the committee adopted the report, with multiple members of the committee filing dissent notes related to, notably, Government Powers (clause 35 of the Bill) and other provisions of the Bill. 

What dissents have been filed?

Some of the members of the committee have filed dissent notes showing concern with respect to certain provisions. The joint dissent filed by Mahua Moitra and Derek O’Brein have termed the bill as Orwellian. They have argued that clause 35 of the bill gives unbridled powers to the government without any adequate safeguards. Jairam Ramesh in his dissent note points out the wide powers given to the government under clause 35 and 12 of the Bill. He also stated that he attempted to  amend these sections so as to put certain safeguards, like parliamentary oversight. However, he was unable to convince the committee to accept these changes. He also stated that the Bill is designed in such a manner that the constitutional right of privacy exists only in the context of private companies and entities. 

On the same note, Gaurav Gogoi, pointed out the unchecked powers of the government under the act and lack of debate related to the issue of surveillance. He also raised question against removal of the clause which penalised companies for data breaches. Further, Manish Tewari expressed dissented to the bill in its entirety, as he believes that, there is an inherent structural flaw and it will be struck down by the court for being ultra vires the constitution as per the Puttuswamy Judgment. Amar Patnaik in his dissent has raised the concern of lack of state level data protection authorities.

What happens next?

Now the report is scheduled to be presented in the Lok Sabha in the first week of Winter Session.  This is the second stage of the Second Reading. At this stage the house will consider the bill as presented by the committee clause-by-clause and various members of the Lok Sabha can move amendments to the bill. With this the house shall move to the Third Reading. At this stage the house shall discuss the motion that the Bill or the Amended Bill may be passed or not. Once it is passed by the Lok Sabha, it shall be laid before the Rajya Sabha. The Rajya Sabha will also follow the same procedure of three readings and then it may either pass the bill or reject it. However, the bill is not listed to be tabled this winter session. 

In case the bill is passed by the both houses, it will then go to the President for assent. However, if the bill is rejected by the Rajya Sabha or there is a disagreement, a joint sitting will be called by the President.