Govt to come out with final version of IT Rules soon

Over the next few months, the government will also come out with laws and rules on the national data governance framework and reintroduce in the Parliament the new digital data protection bill, Chandrasekhar said, addressing an event organised by the US-India Business Council.

All the new laws and rules, Chandrasekhar said, will be brought out only after intense public and stakeholder consultations. The new laws will supersede the old laws and rules currently in place, he said.

“These new laws, in a sense, supersede existing legislation. So, the Digital India Act will clearly supersede the IT (Information Technology) Act (of 2000). There is no question of both of them existing. If there are any contradictions with the existing and legacy laws, we will get them amended,” the minister of state said.

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Earlier in August, the
IT ministry had withdrawn the older version of the data protection bill, which was first introduced in Parliament in 2019. Senior government officials had then told ET that the new version of the data protection bill was at a “very advanced stage” and would have a comprehensive framework.

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Similarly, in June this year, the ministry completed open house discussions on the proposed amendments to the IT Rules of 2021. It then asked all stakeholders to submit their comments on the proposed changes by July 6.

Addressing the stakeholders, Chandrasekhar had then said that the
government would be open to making more changes in the IT Rules of 2021 if there arose a need to do so.

“I have said all along that these are constantly going to evolve in consultation with the stakeholders involved. So, even if we agree that there will be an appellate tribunal model to the appellate committee model today, there is nothing that says that we will not be able to change it into a self-regulatory or self-regulated mechanism one year down the road or six months,” Chandrasekhar had said.