The PDP Bill has been under review by a Joint Parliamentary Committee since 2019, and the committee was recently given an extension till the winter session for presenting its report. Four members of Rajya Sabha were appointed to the Joint Parliamentary Committee on the Personal Data Protection Bill after a motion by BJP MP V. Murleedharan was passed in the Upper House today. Yesterday two motions were passed in the Lok Sabha today to appoint 7 new members- 3 from the Lok Sabha and 4 from the Rajya Sabha to the JPC, which has had several vacancies recently after multiple members were inducted into the Union Council of Ministers. Both the Lok Sabha motions were introduced by committee's Chairman P.P. Chaudhry and committee member Bhartruhari Mahtab. The motion in the lower house however did not list the names of the Rajya Sabha MPs and instead, recommended the Upper House to appoint four MPs from the house and subsequently 'communicate' the appointments to the Lower House. Recent resignations, retirements, and elevation of several committee members to positions in the Council of Ministers left as many as seven positions vacant in the 30 member-committee. Why it matters? The JPC was constituted in December 2019 to review the draft Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019, under the chairmanship of Meenakashi Lekhi. According to PRS legislative, a JPC can give non-enforceable recommendations to the government and subsequently publish reports on actions taken by the government which can be debated in Parliament. Since the Puttaswamy judgement in…
