Civil rights and journalist bodies on Wednesday expressed apprehension over the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, saying the provisions under it may fail the Right to Information Act and end press freedom.
Supreme Court lawyer and convenor of The Campaign for Judicial Accountability & Judicial Reforms, Prashant Bhushan alleged that the Act bars and amends RTI Act to stop sharing of personal identifiable information without consent. He said that the provision not only kills the Right to Information Act but also discourages journalists and whistleblowers from exposing the names of corrupt officials without their consent.
“The definitions contained in the Act of data fiduciary, data principal, data processing that anyone be it an activist who seeks personal information through RTI or journalist or a whistleblower attempts to expose corrupt officials then it can be considered an offence under the Act,” Bhushan said.
Former High Court Justice AP Shah in an open letter to Attorney General of India on July 28 said that Section 44(3) of the DPDP Act “enables public authorities to deny information simply by classifying it as ‘personal,’ regardless of its public relevance or importance.”
