This key provision that was present in the preceding draft bill of 2019 has been removed in the present one and thus the latest version of the draft bill on digital personal data protection is a toothless tiger and a rush job.

The draftsmen also shrank the preceding draft bill proposed in 2019 containing 98 Sections and 14 Chapters to 30 Sections and 6 Chapters in the new draft bill. However, in an attempt to be concise the clarity and specificity that is hallmark of a proper legal document has been lost. Many key elements like a data principal’s right to compensation are absent from the new draft bill. There is no clarity on whether the data principal will be compensated or the penalty money collected from an offender will go entirely into the government’s coffers.

The loss of specificity has rendered the draft bill a mere skeleton of an Act that may get passed by the Legislative body and thereafter filled by the executive arms of the government, giving more power to the executive aka bureaucrats to dictate the terms. For instance, the composition, powers, and functions of the data protection Board of India has been left quite vague. Typically, any board with wide adjudicatory powers is chaired by a judge who has served in the Supreme Court or High Courts. The composition also defines the expertise and experience sought from its members so that they can make qualified and educated judgements. However, leaving the composition of the Data Protection Board of India vague puts a question-mark on the intent of the executive body with respect to the appointees of the Board.

The skeletal draft bill seems to be shy of the tenets of administrative law that expects the legislative arm of the government to delegate as little responsibility as possible to the executive arm in matters of framing laws.

Even the penalty this draft bill seeks to impose is ill-defined and tepid as compared to the previous Draft Bill of 2019.

personal data protection

Draft Data Protection Bill: From policy paralysis to toothlessness