After withdrawing the personal data protection bill, the government of India is hopeful of getting new legislation passed by the next budget session of parliament. Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has said.
The government on Wednesday withdrew the Personal Data Protection Bill from the Lok Sabha. The Joint Committee on Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019, headed by BJP member P P Chaudhary, tabled its report in Lok Sabha on December 16, 2021.
According to reports Vaishnaw said that the joint committee gave a very good report in which they recommended 81 amendments in a Bill of 99 sections.
“Over and above that, there are 12 more major recommendations. So with this as background, there was no way but to put a fresh draft. Without compromising with any of the principles of privacy or with the Supreme Court’s judgment. We have prepared a new draft. We have completed the Parliament’s process today and very soon we will be taking the new draft through the approval process: Very soon hopefully by the budget session we should be able to get a new law passed,” said Vaishnaw.
Minister of State for Electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar said the government will come up with a comprehensive framework covering all aspects of the digital economy with dedicated rules for data privacy, emerging technologies, and data governance framework.
According to sources, the next version of the bill along with the IT Act amendment, national data governance framework, etc will be placed in Parliament to address all issues of the IT sector, including data privacy.
“After considerable deliberation, and examining of the report, it has found that there is a need for a comprehensive redrawing of the laws and rules, taking into account some of the JCP’s comments and the emerging challenges and opportunities that the contemporary challenges and future opportunities that arise here,” the minister said.
Chandrasekhar further explained that the version of the bill tabled by the Joint Committee of Parliament (JCP) had covered wide issues which required to be addressed under various rules and were not specific to data privacy.
