Rajya Sabha MP and member of the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) on the Personal Data Protection Bill (PDP) Jairam Ramesh filed a detailed dissent note criticising the wide range of exemptions given to the Union government from the provisions of the PDP Bill, according to a tweet he posted. The note was filed on the same day that the JPC met and decided to adopt its draft report on the PDP bill which has been under deliberation for the past two years. The report will now be tabled in the Parliament in the upcoming Winter Session. The dissent note addressed to JPC chairman PP Chaudhary is publicly available in the form of a tweet by Ramesh. https://twitter.com/Jairam_Ramesh/status/1462657040627634177 The much-delayed report of the bill was expected to be tabled during the previous session of the parliament. However, after a change in committee leadership and memberships, the JPC asked for an extension till the winter session. Under a newly-appointed chairperson, the JPC revisited the bill to reportedly discuss new recommendations to the bill. A look at the dissent note In brief, Ramesh pointed Chaudhary's attention to two clauses of the draft PDP Bill — Section 35 of the PDP Bill: Ramesh told Chaudhary that he had suggested amendments to Section 35 of PDP Bill, the section that deals with exemption from the law for government agencies. Ramesh had suggested "Central Government will have to get Parliamentary approval for exempting any of its agencies from the purview of the law." Ramesh also said…
