Data protection, not privacy, is concern: Justice Srikrishna

Saying that data protection and not data privacy across the country is the main issue before his panel, Justice BN Srikrishna, who is heading an expert committee for framing a draft data protection law, says his panel isn't examining how Aadhaar works.

Speaking to DNA, Justice Srikrishna, a former Supreme Court Judge, said, "Data privacy across the country is not a problem as such but data protection is. How the data is collected, either by consent or without consent, what will be its implications and how do we protect it, these are the issues. Protection means it is your data, you have the right to say for what purpose it is being collected, what it is being used for and when will you destroy it."

The issue of data privacy and safe-keeping of citizens' data collected by government agencies like Aadhaar has again hit the headlines in the wake of news reports claiming that Aadhaar data being made available for petty amounts by unauthorised persons.

The 10-member expert committee was formed by the Union Ministry of Electronics and IT in July last year to examine data protection framework and draft a data protection law.

The committee started its first round of public consultations on Friday in the national capital. It had earlier come out with a white paper on the subject asking about 200 questions to the stakeholders.

When asked about the data breach of Aadhaar numbers, he said how Aadhaar works is not the concern of the committee.

"We are not concerned with how Aadhaar works. The Supreme Court is going to deal with it. We are looking at how data should be dealt with in this country, which will apply to Aadhaar as well," the former Judge remarked.

"Aadhaar is a live example, but it is just one aspect. There are other important issues such as medical records, education records, financial records whether they have to be localised or can be stored outside," he added.

In August last year, the Supreme Court had refused to be swayed by the Centre's logic that the right to privacy was not an absolute right and was subject to interests of the state.

Incidentally, a bunch of petitions challenging the constitutionality and legality of Aadhaar card are pending in the Supreme Court. Asked when the committee will come out with its recommendations, he responded by saying "as expeditiously as possible".

The last date for submission of comments is January 31 and there are three more rounds of public consultations -- in Hyderabad on January 12, in Bengaluru on January 13, and in Mumbai on January 23.

DNA had on Friday reported former Supreme Court Judge Justice M Jagannadha Rao writing to the committee pointing out how the white paper released by it for public consultation refers to collection of data but "not to the boundaries of the right to collection of data which is the essence of the SC judgment".

The issue of balancing citizens' rights and interests of the state is "mostly missing" in the white paper and the "rhetoric" in the white paper is "meant to divert our attention from the fundamental rights of citizens to other issues which are not relevant from the point of view of fundamental rights of citizens.

"The collection of data is given a go-bye and only the right to use it is considered, without going into the extent the extent of permissible surveillance by the State," Justice Rao has said.

The Justice Srikrishna committee was constituted on July 31 last year in the wake of the landmark judgment by the nine-judge bench of the Supreme Court in the KS Puttaswamy case, which held that the Indian citizens have a fundamental right to privacy, which it is intrinsic to life and liberty guaranteed under the Constitution.

Justice Rao has also pointed out that "there is vast case law as to how general data of all citizens cannot be collected by the State and as to what the State cannot collect and even if it can collect, cannot retain or direct retention by citizens".