Government Withdraws Personal Data Protection Bill
The bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha in December 2019.
The central government has withdrawn a proposed version of the bill to protect personal data, according to the Lok Sabha’s list of business on Wednesday.
The Personal Data Protection Bill, 2021 was first introduced in the Lok Sabha in December 2019 and was referred to a joint committee comprising members from both the houses of parliament.
The Joint Parliamentary Committee submitted its report in December last year, suggesting changes and expansion of the scope of the law.
The bill will soon be replaced by a "comprehensive framework of global standard laws including digital privacy laws for contemporary and future challenges", Rajeev Chandrashekhar, minister of state for information & technology, said.
The announcement of the withdrawal comes after more than five years of consultation and parliamentary deliberations.
The bill in 2019 was introduced after a government-appointed committee headed by Justice BN Srikrishna, a retired Supreme Court judge, submitted a draft version of the law.
The timelines and other details of the proposed legislation to replace the bill is not known yet.