The government has informed the Supreme Court that the new Digital Personal Data Protection Bill 2022 was ready and would be tabled in the Parliament during the monsoon session in July 2023.
The bill is ready and was submitted to the constitution bench headed by Justice KM Joseph which also comprises justices Ajay Rastogi, Aniruddha Bose, Hrishikesh Roy, and C T Ravikumar. Attorney General R Venkatramani informed the constitution bench about the new bill during the hearing of petitions challenging WhatsApp’s policy to share users’ data with Facebook group of companies.
Upon hearing multiple appeals challenging privacy policies and infringement of right to privacy and free speech, attorney general R Venkataramani requested the court to defer the hearing till August 2023 as the bill was ready to be circulated by the monsoon session. The prosecutors opposed any further deferment of the case and requested not to link WhatsApp’s 2016 privacy policy to the complex legislative process.
