New Delhi: The Centre on Tuesday informed the Supreme Court that a new data protection bill is ready and it will be introduced in the Monsoon session of Parliament. Attorney General R Venkatramani who conveyed this information to a Constitution bench headed by Justice KM Joseph said the bill is ready.
The bench also comprising justices Ajay Rastogi, Aniruddha Bose, Hrishikesh Roy, and C T Ravikumar took note of the submission. They directed that the matter be placed before Chief Justice DY Chandrachud so that a new bench can be constituted as Justice Joseph is set to retire on June 16.
The matter has been posted for hearing in the first week of August 2023. Senior advocate Shyam Divan, appearing for the petitioners, submitted that the court should not link the court hearings to the legislative process. The legislative process is complex and it may be again referred to some committees, he said.
The apex court was hearing a plea filed by two students -- Karmanya Singh Sareen and Shreya Sethi -- challenging the contract entered into between WhatsApp and its parent Facebook to provide access to calls, photographs, texts, videos and documents shared by users, saying it is a violation of their privacy and free speech.
Earlier in on Jan. 31, the government informed the Court that the data protection bill will be introduced in the second leg of the recently concluded Budget session. Mehta had said the introduction of the bill will be subject to administrative approvals and is likely to be done in the second half of the parliament session.
The bench wondered whether it would not be a mere academic exercise when the government is contemplating a legislation. "Will it not be a mere academic exercise," the bench had asked. Mehta who concurrred with the Constituttion Bench said the whole exercise of hearing the issue might become an academic exercise in absence of a statutory framework.
WhatsApp represented by senior advocate Kapil Sibal insisted that the Apex court should wait for the bill to be tabled. However, Divan submitted that the introduction of a Bill itself should not defer the taking up of this case. "Personal data cannot be shared with the Facebook group of companies," Divan said explaining the prayer of the petitioners.
"We seek a declaration to that effect. We want an opt-out option and there should be a meaningful option. That option is not available to Indian users. There is a public interest element to this," Divan had said.
