Revolution in India — Personal Data Protection

We would have heard about the upcoming Data Protection Bill in India. In this post, a quick timeline on the evolution of the Bill, a look into the recent past and the current status is highlighted.

Disclaimer — The contents posted herein are after some research. Do correct me if any of the information posted here is inaccurate.

2000 — The Indian IT Act (ITA) came into force. This primarily addresses eCommerce & Cyber crimes. Does not have much elements of Data Protection

2006 — IT Amendment Bill & Personal Privacy Protection Bill was proposed and came up in the Parliament. Soon Collapsed.

2008 — The ITA Amendment Bill came into force. This included some elements of Data Protection

2011 — The IT Rules came as a Notification. This was based on Section 43A of the ITA 2000

Somewhere here between 2011–2015, The Justice AP Shah Committee recommended a Data Protection Law for India.

March, 2016 — The Aadhar Act came into force. This was initially welcomed but later caused chaos.

Aug 25, 2017 — “Privacy is a fundamental Right” says the SC (referenced the Article 21 of the Constitution of India). Justice Puttaswamy (Retd. Justice, SC) was the pioneer.

Oct 27, 2017 — The Constitutional validity of Aadhar was questioned and a Case was put before the Supreme Court (SC) of India.

Nov 28, 2017 — The Data Protection Framework Whitepaper was released under the leadership of Justice BN SriKrishna, for public consultation — Last date 31 Dec, 2017

Dec 18, 2017 — The Last date was extended to Jan 31, 2018

Jan 5, 2018 — Stakeholder consultation was conducted by MEITy (Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology) at Delhi & few other cities.

Jan 31, 2018 — Last date for submission of public comments on the Framework.

July 27, 2018 — The Personal Data Protection Bill was released