Centre to SC: New Data Protection Bill likely to be introduced in Monsoon Session in Parliament

The government would introduce the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill during the forthcoming Monsoon Session of Parliament in July,  Center notified the Supreme Court on Tuesday.
The case was scheduled for hearing in August before a five-judge Constitutional Court panel made up of Justices KM Joseph, Ajay Rastogi, Aniruddha Bose, Hrishikesh Roy, and CT Ravikumar. The new Personal Data Protection Bill is ready and will be submitted in the Parliament’s Monsoon Session, according to Attorney General R. Venkatramani, speaking on behalf of the Centre.
The Attorney General stated, “The Bill is ready; it just needs to be introduced in Parliament during the monsoon session at the end of June, July.”

To this bench replied, “So, it will be under consideration if we list in July , August will be most practical.”

“We notice the Attorney General’s suggestion that a Bill covering several areas of the… addressing all concerns will be introduced during the Monsoon Session in July 2023. The matter should be presented to the Chief Justice of India for a bench to be formed, preferably in the first week of August, the bench mentioned in its order.
The petitioners’ attorneys asked the top court to list the case earlier because the bill hadn’t been introduced in the Parliament for a while.
“The consultation process is lengthy…We want a good law to be passed,” the Attorney General replied.

The bench was listening to two students’ complaints that WhatsApp’s 2021 Privacy Policy, which allows users’ data to be shared with the parent corporation Facebook and others, violates their right to privacy and free speech.
The Bill that addresses user privacy concerns and requirements for WhatsApp was requested by the top court last year. If the government did not comply, the case’s final hearing would start.
The Centre had previously stated that other WhatsApp users cannot discriminate against Indian users, and it had also informed the Supreme Court that the government had already withdrawn the previous Data Protection Bill and would be introducing a new one.

The bench was listening to two students’ complaints that WhatsApp’s 2021 Privacy Policy, which allows users’ data to be shared with the parent corporation Facebook and others, violates their right to privacy and free speech.
The Bill that addresses user privacy concerns and requirements for WhatsApp was requested by the top court last year. If the government did not comply, the case’s final hearing would start.
The Centre had previously stated that other WhatsApp users cannot discriminate against Indian users, and it had also informed the Supreme Court that the government had already withdrawn the previous Data Protection Bill and would be introducing a new one.

Karmanya Singh Sareen and Shreya Sethi, two students, brought a complaint before the Constitution bench alleging that the agreement between the two companies to allow access to calls, photos, texts, videos, and documents shared by users violates their right to privacy and their right to free speech.