Data bill report tabled in Lok Sabha as govt, opposition spar | India News

NEW DELHI: Amid a public standoff between Union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar and CPM MP John Brittas over whether a parliamentary standing committee has the mandate to examine a bill that has not been introduced in either House of Parliament, the contentious report on the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Bill was tabled in Lok Sabha on Tuesday.

Titled ‘Citizens’ Data Security and Privacy’, the 88-page report of the House panel on communications and information technology contains feedback from the ministry on various clauses of the draft DPDP Bill that was published online by the ministry of IT and electronics on November 18, 2022. The report, tabled by panel chairman and Shiv Sena MP Prataprao Jadhav, advocates the legislation’s immediate enactment into law.
The last meeting of the panel on July 26, where the report was adopted, ended with opposition MPs protesting and staging a walkout over the committee attempting to discuss a bill that had not been introduced in either House of Parliament, or referred to the committee for examination. Brittas, who registered his dissent to the presiding officers of both Houses and demanded that the report not be tabled, also locked horns with Chandrasekhar on Twitter, with the latter accusing him of spreading misinformation.