Roll Back Amendments Made to the RTI Act through the Digital Personal Data Protection Act. *Do Not Operationalise Section 44(3) of the DPDP Act*
Section 44(3) of the Digital Personal Data Protection Act (DPDP Act) has amended the RTI Act, adversely impacting the ability of people to access information under the RTI law. The amendment made to section 8(1)(j) of RTI Act seeks to exempt all personal information from disclosure. It does away with the exceptions carved out within the RTI Act wherein personal information could be denied only if it had no relationship to any public activity or public interest; or would cause unwarranted invasion of privacy.
Further, the amendment has also done away with an important proviso to section 8(1) of the RTI Act which stated that “information which cannot be denied to the Parliament or a State Legislature shall not be denied to any person”.
The RTI Act has empowered millions of Indian citizens to seek information and hold the government accountable. It is well established that access to granular information, including personal information, is critical to empower people to undertake collective monitoring and ensure they are able to access their rights and entitlements. The amendments made to the RTI Act will place impediments and restrictions on such public disclosures.
The amendments to the Right to Information Act, 2005 through the DPDP Act fundamentally weaken the RTI Act. We believe that the legal framework for privacy and data protection should complement the RTI Act and in no way undermine or dilute it.
Section 1(2) of the DPDP Act gives the power to the Central government to notify the date for the provisions of the DPDP Act to come into force and different dates may be appointed for different provisions. Therefore, we urge the government to not operationalise Section 44(3) of the DPDP Act.