Beginning the work on enacting a data protection law in the country, the Centre on Tuesday formed a committee, headed by a former Supreme Court judge, to study all aspects of electronic and digital data requiring protection and propose a suitable legal mechanism to ensure its safeguard. The work of the committee will lead to the drafting of the first ever Data Protection Bill.
The decision of the Centre taken on Monday was conveyed to the court by Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Tushar Mehta appearing for Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) or Aadhaar. Addressing arguments on privacy before a nine-judge Constitution Bench, he said that a committee under former Supreme Court judge BN Srikrishna along with Secretary, Ministry of Information Technology among others, has been formed as part of Government's commitment to protect data of citizens stored in digital format.
"We have to keep pace with the changes in law as there is a growing importance of data protection in a digital economy…We are cognisant to the emerging needs. With this law, there will be an overarching regime for data protection," he submitted. The Committee has been constituted by a Gazette notification on Monday with terms of reference that include study of all issues related to data protection, principles to be considered for data protection, and the contours of a Data Protection Bill.
The counsels for Maharashtra and Gujarat submitted to the Court that privacy need not be found as a separate fundamental right as it is statutorily protected under various laws, including the Aadhaar Act of 2016. Further, Maharashtra's counsel senior advocate C Aryama Sundaram further argued that the Constitution makers clearly intended to put out privacy right from the Constitution.
"If the intention is clear, the Court must say that the intention is insufficient and will require further introduction to the law. This task, under the balance of power principle, lies with the Parliament, he said.
When Sundaram suggested that no citizen seems to complain about privacy when they are getting subsidised food and other public benefits under Aadhaar scheme, the Bench headed by CJI JS Khehar and comprising Justices J Chelameswar, SA Bobde, RK Agarwal, RF Nariman, AM Sapre, DY Chandrachud, SK Kaul and S Abdul Nazeer said, "You are offering a very cruel choice to them."
The Bench pointed out that international covenants recognising privacy as basic human right also oblige courts to read the right into India's human rights law regime. Justice Nariman said, "Constitution must meet the felt needs of the times. Statute must give way to principle and once we recognise the principle of liberty, the courts alone are entrusted with the task to interpret and not Parliament.”