The Union Cabinet has approved draft of Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Bill 2023 for tabling it in the upcoming monsoon session of Parliament, an official source said on Wednesday.
The bill proposes to levy penalty of up to Rs 250 crore on entities for every instance of violation of norms in the bill. "The Cabinet has approved draft of the DPDP bill. It will be tabled in Parliament in the upcoming session," the source said as per PTI.
Monsoon session of Parliament will be held from July 20 to August 11. According to the source, the bill includes almost all the provisions of the last draft that was issued by Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology for consultation.
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The source said government entities have not been granted blanket exemption under the proposed law. "In case of disputes, Data Protection Board will decide. Citizens will have the right to claim compensation by approaching civil court. There are lot of things that will evolve gradually," the source said.
According to the source, individuals will have the right to seek details about their data collection, storage and processing once the law is implemented.
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY) released the revamped Draft Digital Personal Data Protection Bill 2022 in November last year.
While introducing the bill, the MEITY said in a statement, “The Digital Personal Data Protection Bill is a legislation that frames out the rights and duties of the citizen (Digital Nagrik) on one hand and the obligations to use collected data lawfully of the Data Fiduciary on the other hand.”
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Concerns Regarding Data Protection Bill (2022 Draft)
The revised bill in 2022 granted overarching powers to the central government for appointment of data protection officials, posing a serious threat to the independence of the Board, due to inadequate checks and balances, analysts had said.
It also gave the union government blanket powers in granting exemptions to agencies under it with use of clauses such as “public order” and “national security” that can be ambiguously deployed and misused to deny consent-based data collection and processing.
"One of the most important features of any data protection legislation will be a strong and independent regulatory authority. The independence of the Data Protection Board under the DPDPB was questionable and this should be rectified in the upcoming draft bill," the internet rights group Internet Freedom Foundation said in a tweet.
The government had withdrawn the earlier version of the bill -- Personal Data Protection Bill 2019 in August last year, after a joint committee of Parliament had proposed 81 amendments and 12 recommendations towards a comprehensive legal framework on digital ecosystem.
