New Delhi: Congress MP Jairam Ramesh has in a letter to Union minister for electronics and information technology Ashwini Vaishnaw sought the “pause, review and repeal” of Section 44(3) of the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act that amends the Right to Information (RTI) Act, calling it an “RTI-destroying amendment”.

Ramesh’s letter to Vaishnaw on Sunday (April 13) came after Vaishnaw responded to the Congress MP’s earlier letter to him on March 23.

In his letter, Vaishnaw cited Section 3 of the DPDP Act and said personal details that are subject to public disclosure under various laws will continue to be disclosed and added that the amendment does not restrict the disclosure of personal information but aims to strengthen privacy rights.

The Wire has reported that the minister’s response skipped the key issue of the amendment to the RTI Act that now provides a blanket exemption to the disclosure of personal information, which has been decried by transparency and anti-corruption activists.

Ramesh in his letter said that Section 3 of the DPDP Act cited by Vaishnaw “is wholly irrelevant since Section 8(1) of the RTI Act, 2005 itself has been amended drastically”.

“Section 3 of the DPDP Act will now only protect disclosures as per the amended RTI Act, which exempts all personal information from being accessible,” he wrote.

“Second, the operation of the RTI Act, 2005 – informed by several judgments by the Supreme Court and various high courts – has demonstrated that the law is able to withhold the disclosure of personal information which has no relationship to any public activity or public interest,” his letter said.

“Third, the deletion of the proviso in Section 8(1) of the RTI Act which recognises the citizens’ right to information as being at par with that of legislators is completely unwarranted”, the Congress general secretary said in his letter to Vaishnaw.

“In fact,” he added, “that proviso is applicable not just to the personal information exemption, but all exemptions in Section 8(1) of the RTI Act, 2005.”

Ramesh’s letter comes as opposition MPs of the INDIA bloc on Thursday (April 10) held a press conference seeking a repeal of Section 44(3) of the DPDP Act, and said that the provision has a “draconian impact” on the rights of citizens and the freedom of the press by destroying the RTI Act.

On the same day, Vaishnaw responded to Ramesh’s March 23 letter and said that the amendment to the RTI Act “will not restrict disclosure of personal information”.

“Therefore any personal information that is subject to disclosure under legal obligations under various laws governing our public representatives and welfare programmes etc will continue to be disclosed under the RTI Act. In fact, this amendment will not restrict disclosure of personal information; rather it aims to strengthen the privacy rights of the individuals and prevent the potential misuse of the law,” said Vaishnaw in his letter.

Transparency activist Venkatesh Nayak had said to The Wire that the minister's reading of Section 3 as a standalone clause is not correct and must be read in conjunction with the amendment made through Section 44(3) of the DPDP Act, which turns Section 8(1)(j) of the RTI Act into a category exemption.

Ramesh in his letter on Sunday also referred to the minister's citation of the  Supreme Court’s Puttaswamy judgement that had held privacy as a fundamental right and said that the judgement did not mention that the RTI Act needs to be amended.

“Please do remember that nowhere in this judgment is it mentioned that the RTI Act, 2005 itself needs to be amended. The judgment reinforces that safeguarding personal privacy and promoting institutional transparency are not mutually exclusive but are jointly essential,” he said.

Ramesh, like in his March 23 letter, once again asked the minister to “pause, review and repeal” the amendment made to the RTI Act.

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