Manish Tewari submits dissent note to JPC, says Data Protection Bill has 'inherent design flaw'

Congress MP Manish Tewari on Monday submitted a dissent note on the Data Protection Bill in the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) meeting and said that there is an "inherent design flaw in its very construction".

Tewari wrote a dissent note to the JPC Chairman PP Chaudhary and said he had proposed amendments to the various clauses of the Bill.

"Since committee in its wisdom decided to accept none of the substantive amendments proposed by me, I hereby submit that the comments and amendments contained in the note annexed herewith should be treated as my dissent to the proposed bill as amended time to time under consideration of the honourable committee," says Tewari's dissent note.

He said that the fundamental objection to this bill is that there is an inherent design flaw in its very construction.

"I, therefore, am constrained to holistically reject the Bill in its present form in entirety for this design flaw," he said.

"The Bill as it stands creates two parallel universes -- one for the private sector where it would apply with full rigour and one for government where it is riddled with exemptions, carve-outs and escape clauses. In my limited experience of three decades as a litigator, I have always been taught and made to appreciate that a Fundamental Right is principally enforceable against the state," he said.

He further said that the Bill ultra "vires" of the Fundamental Right to Privacy as laid down by a nine-judge bench of the Supreme Court of India in Re Puttuswamy (2017) 10 SCC 1.

"I do not think that this Bill in its present form especially most of its exception and exemption clauses including various carve-outs for Governments both Centre and State that exempt these behemoths from the ambit of this legislation would therefore stand the test of 'vires' in a Constitutional Court of Law as and when it would be so tested," he added.

The Union Cabinet had earlier in December 2019 approved the Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019 that deals with the privacy and security of data of Indian citizens.

It was drafted following a Supreme Court judgement in August 2017 that declared 'Right to Privacy a fundamental right.

The Joint Committee of Parliament had last met in Delhi on November 12 to consider and adopt the draft report of the Bill.

The Joint Committee has been constituted to examine `The Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019' which was introduced in Lok Sabha on December 11, 2019.

The Bill aims to provide for the protection of the privacy of individuals relating to their personal data, specify the flow and usage of personal data, create a relationship of trust between persons and entities processing the personal data, protect the rights of individuals whose personal data are processed, to create a framework for organisational and technical measures in the processing of data, laying down norms for social media intermediary, cross-border transfer, accountability of entities processing personal data, remedies for unauthorised and harmful processing, and to establish a Data Protection Authority of India.

( With inputs from ANI )

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