JPC on data bill summons Facebook for deposition on August 10

The JPC on the data protection Bill has called representatives from Facebook for deposition in its second meeting slated to happen on August 10. Other representatives which have been called are from industry body ASSOCHAM and Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Centre and L&L Partners-Law Office. In their last meeting, the committee had called officials from the Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY), Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) to brief the committee.

ET reported earlier that the committee, which was supposed to submit its report in the upcoming monsoon session of Parliament, has reached out to companies such as Amazon and Microsoft, industry lobby group Nasscom and some academic institutions, ahead of depositions on the landmark Bill.

The committee last sought stakeholder feedback in February and wrote to companies and institutions asking for a presentation, which will support the “oral submission” that they make when they appear before the committee.


The committee met last time for the first time after a four month hiatus. According to report issues pertaining to exemptions that the government has granted for itself came up for detailed discussions.