Data protection bill seeks to make regressive amendments to RTI Act: NCPRI
NCPRI said the proposed amendments will adversely impact the ability of people to access information and give undue powers to the public information officers to withhold personal information
NEW DELHI: The National Campaign for Peoples’ Right to Information (NCPRI) has expressed its disappointment over the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, 2023 (DPDP Bill) introduced in the Lok Sabha on Thursday, saying it proposes “regressive” amendments to the Right to Information (RTI) in the name of privacy.
NCPRI said the proposed amendments will adversely impact the ability of people to access information and give undue powers to the public information officers to withhold personal information, which is in the larger public interest.
Section 8(1)(j) of the RTI Act, 2005, prohibits sharing of personal information which has no relation to public activity or interest but allows release of information if the public authority is “satisfied that the larger public interest justifies the disclosure of such information”.
“The proposed amendment to section 8(1)(j) of RTI Act therefore seeks to exempt all personal information. It does away with the exceptions carved out within the section based on which personal information could have been disclosed,” the NCPRI statement said, underlining that the proposed blanket exemption is problematic.
NCPRI said the legal framework for privacy and data protection should complement the RTI Act and shouldn’t undermine or dilute the existing statutory framework that empowers citizens to hold power structures to accountability.
The advocacy group said the data protection bill should be amended in line with the recommendation of the Justice AP Shah Report on Privacy (2012) which said, “The Privacy Act should clarify that publication of personal data … in public interest, use of personal information for household purposes, and disclosure of information as required by the Right to Information Act should not constitute an infringement of Privacy.”
NCPRI also raised objections to the proposed Data Protection Board under the bill, saying it lacks autonomy and provides for “wide discretionary powers to the executive” such as union government having power to exempt any government or even private sector entity from the application of provisions of the law by issuing a notification.
