HomeIndiaNiti Aayog had warned that data protection law may weaken RTI

Niti Aayog had warned that data protection law may weaken RTI

Niti Aayog had warned that data protection law may weaken RTI

#News Bureau September 29,2024

Ever since the Data Protection Bill became law, it has not only been opposed by activists, civil society and opposition parties, but government think tanks have also warned about it. One of the few provisions in the Data Protection Bill that Niti Aayog had warned about was the weakening of the RTI. But the government ignored it and passed the bill in the same form and it became law. The Indian Express has reported this news quoting official sources. However, this law is yet to be implemented.

What the Data Protection Law has proposed also includes an amendment to a section of the RTI Act. This amendment will make it so that disclosure of personal information about government officials will not be allowed, even if it is right in the larger public interest. That is, if someone wants to get personal information about a government official through RTI, then the new Data Protection Law will prevent them from doing so.

During the consultation period last year and when the bill came up for discussion in Parliament, opposition parties and civil society activists had also criticized the provision of amendment in the RTI Act. To address their concerns, the government had said that the right to privacy given by the Constitution is a fundamental right, which should also be made available to officials in government institutions.

This is the provision about which the government’s premier think tank Niti Aayog had warned. According to the report of the English newspaper, on January 16, 2023, Niti Aayog formally wrote a letter to the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) urging it not to pass the proposed law in its current form as it could weaken the RTI Act. The Commission had suggested that the bill be amended and new opinion be sought.

An important thing is that these suggestions of Niti Aayog came at a time when the bill was in the first phase of its draft and consultations were going on between each other ministries. That is, then it would not have been very difficult to accept the suggestions of the Commission and the process would not have taken much time.

It was only after this that it sought private inter-ministerial consultations and public consultations. The Bill was then passed in Parliament in August 2023 and received Presidential assent the same month.

The Niti Aayog has stated in its opinion that the amendment will take away the power of Public Information Officers to check status, which will ultimately weaken the RTI Act. The November 2022 draft version of the Data Protection Bill also included a clause to amend Section 8(1)(j) of the RTI Act, which means that the Commission’s suggestion to remove the provision was not considered and the Bill was passed with the provision to amend the RTI Act. The law is yet to be enacted, awaiting the rules required for its implementation.

Two senior government officials confirmed Niti Aayog’s comments to the English newspaper. One official said the reason for its recommendations not being accepted was that the Department of Personnel and Training, which is the implementing agency for the RTI Act, had not raised any concerns about the amendments in the RTI Act.

Both Niti Aayog and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology have not responded to queries sent by it, The Indian Express reported.

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