The Act has branching for technology and all major sectors of the economy since it prescribes several rules regarding collecting, processing and storing personal data

The government is preparing to release the proposed administrative rules under the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act for public consultation before the beginning of the upcoming Parliament session in July, to give sufficient time for stakeholders to consider, a senior government official said.

According to the reports, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology is likely to give up 45 days for stakeholders to submit their views, once the draft rules are released for public consultation.

The DPDP Act was passed in August and aims to have administrative rules notified within a year to ensure compliance. The Act focuses on personal data collection, processing, and storage, marking India’s first regulation on digital personal privacy. The rules are important for data protection, stakeholder engagement, and regulatory enforcement.

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“It is one of the major priorities, once the (DPDP) Act was passed in August last year, we aim to ensure that the rules are notified within a year of that. All stakeholders will be consulted,” the official said.

The Act has branching for technology and all major sectors of the economy since it prescribes several rules regarding collecting, processing and storing personal data. It is India’s first regulation on digital personal privacy. The versions of it have been in the works for more than a decade now. The first attempt to create such a law was made in 2011 with the formation of a group of experts under the chairmanship of former Delhi High Court Chief Justice AP Shah.

The expert group submitted its report in October 2012 to the  IT ministry, but no action was taken. In 2017, the IT ministry formed another committee headed by retired Supreme Court judge Justice BN Srikrishna to relook into digital privacy issues. The Justice Srikrishna committee submitted its report a year later in 2018.

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Later in 2019, the government introduced a draft of the Personal Data Protection (PDP) Bill for consideration and passage in the Lok Sabha. The Bill was referred to a joint committee of Parliament, which recommended and introduced several amendments and new clauses.
Three years later in 2022, the Bill was withdrawn by Electronics and Information IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw to introduce a fresh version of the Privacy Bill. The latest version, now called the DPDP Act, was passed in both houses of the Parliament and sanctioned by the president in August 2023, however, without administrative rules under the Act, the law remains inoperative.

(with inputs from ET)