The Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) on Personal Data Protection Bill has completed its deliberations on the long-pending bill and will be submitting the final report in the upcoming winter session in November.
The bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha in December 2019 and soon after referred to the JPC. It got its fifth extension in the monsoon session in July.
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Sources said the contentious Clause 35 of the legislation, which in the name of ‘sovereignty’, “friendly relations with foreign states” and “security of the state” allows any agency under the Union Government exemption from all or any provisions of the law, has been retained.
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More than 10 MPs in the panel had objected to it saying it makes the entire Act infructuous.
“While the clause will remain, the committee has recommended that the reasons for seeking such an exemption should be submitted in writing by the Government,” one of the members said.
The draft report will be circulated among the members in the next few days. A few members are still not satisfied by the so-called “middle path” that the committee has decided to take on this controversial Clause and are likely to submit their dissent notes.
