Personal data protection bill introduced in Lok Sabha, Prasad proposes sending it to joint select committee

A bill to deal with the privacy and security of data of Indian citizens was introduced in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday with Communications, Electronics and Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad saying that the government will bring a proposal to send it to joint select committee of the two Houses.

The Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019 was introduced following a division with opposition members opposing its introduction and saying it should be sent to a standing committee.

Prasad said it is very important legislation and the government is keen that a committee of parliament examines it.

He said a proposal to send it to a joint select committee of the two Houses will be brought tomorrow.

To the demand of sending it to the standing committee, he said the panel deals with a lot of issues but the joint select committee will only deal with the bill.

The minister said the bill provides that there will be a classification of data and critical data cannot go out of the country, while sensitive data can go out with the consent of the individual and permission of authorities.

"The bill protects data, the privacy of individuals and data cannot be taken without consent," he said.

He said the bill had been drafted after extensive consultations.

He said the government had constituted a committee of experts on data protection, chaired by Justice (retd) BN Srikrishna. The Srikrishna Committee had brought out a draft Personal Data Protection Bill (PDPB).

The framework had sought to put in place a culture of privacy by design and promote concepts such as consent framework, purpose limitation, storage limitation, and data minimization among various other privacy-oriented concepts.

The ministry had held wide consultations on the recommendations of the committee to finalise the draft legislation. It had also sought feedback from people on the draft of the bill last year.