Data Protection Bill to be introduced in Monsoon session, AG tells SC

The Bill will address concerns raised about personal data protection in connection with WhatsApp privacy policy

Attorney General R Venkataramani on Tuesday told the Supreme Court that the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill is ready and will be introduced in Parliament in the upcoming Monsoon Session.

The Bill will also address concerns raised about personal data protection in connection with WhatsApp privacy policy, he claimed.

On February 1, the Supreme Court had directed WhatsApp to give wide publicity in the media that users aren't bound to accept its 2021 privacy policy and also WhatsApp's functionality would not be affected till the new Data Protection Bill comes into effect.

On Tuesday, Venkatramani submitted before a five-judge Constitution bench led by Justice K M Joseph that the Bill is ready. It would be introduced in Parliament. The AG stressed, "In the monsoon session, it (Bill) will be introduced."

On this, the bench asked the AG, "Monsoon Session means?"

The AG replied that it will be in July.

The bench, also comprising Justices Ajay Rastogi, Aniruddha Bose, Hrishikesh Roy and C T Ravikumar then fixed the matter for hearing in August.

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, representing WhatsApp, for his part, said the session is at the end of July, so having a hearing in the matter in August will be more practical.

Senior advocate Shyam Divan, representing one of the petitioners, said the matter should be listed earlier and the Bill was supposed to be introduced in the last winter session but it did not happen.

The AG replied that the consultation process is a continuous process, "it went through a very qualified consultation process and do not say that we are taking time, and you want a good law to come."

Divan replied, "We, of course, want a good law to come...", and asked the court to not link court hearing to the legislative process and stressed that the legislative process is complex, and the Bill may be referred to some committee and it may go here or it may go there.

After hearing the submissions, the bench noted AG's submissions that the Bill, which would address all the concerns, is going to be tabled during the Monsoon Session, which will commence in July.

The bench said considering the circumstances the matter may be placed before the Chief Justice of India so that a bench can be constituted preferably in the first week of August. Justice Joseph is set to demit office on superannuation in June.

The court, in its February 1 order, had noted, "When these matters were taken up, the respondents, in particular, the learned Attorney General and the learned Solicitor General appearing for the Union of India again brought to our notice the fact that a Bill called the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, 2022, is on the anvil. It is their contention that the Bill would deal with all the aspects which are the subject-matter of the petitions before this court and their approach is that the matters may not be taken up for hearing."

Two students, Karmanya Singh Sareen and Shreya Sethi, had filed the plea against the contract entered into between WhatsApp and its parent Facebook to provide access to calls, photographs, texts, videos, and documents shared by users, claiming it was a violation of their privacy and free speech.

In May 2021, WhatsApp in a response to the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology's letter had assured that the messaging service will not limit functionality for its users if they do not accept the new privacy policy update.