NDTV: New Delhi: Tuesday, July 31, 2018.
The draft for
personal data protection law recommended by the Justice Srikrishna Committee
proposes exemption of those personal information from disclosure under the Right
to Information (RTI) Act, which can cause harm to the person concerned.
The 213-page
report, prepared by a 10-member committee set up last year under the
chairmanship of the retired Supreme Court judge, Justice BN Srikrishna, said
the data protection law is designed to limit the processing of personal data to
legitimate reasons where the flow of information is beneficial and respects
autonomy of the data principal.
The report
which was submitted to the government on Friday has proposed amendments to the
Section 8(1)(j) of the RTI Act which mentions exemptions from the disclosures
under the Act.
"In
addition to the likelihood of harm, disclosure should be restricted only where
any likely harm outweighs the common good of transparency and accountability in
the functioning of public authorities," the report said regarding any
personal information with a government authority.
"Only if
such information is likely to cause harm to a data principal and such harm
outweighs the aforementioned public interest, can the information be exempted
from disclosure," it added.
The report
noted that nothing contained in the data protection bill will apply to the
disclosure under Section 8(1)(j) section. This is to prevent privacy from
becoming a stonewalling tactic to hinder transparency, it added.
"The RTI
Act prescribes a standard for privacy protection in laying out an exemption to
transparency requirements under Section 8(1)(j). This needs to be amended to
clarify when it will be activated and to harmonise the standard of privacy
employed with the general data protection statute."
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