Digital Personal Data Protection Bill 2022 (DPDPB 2022) provides the following rights to the data principals namely
1.Right to Access
2.Right to Correction and erasure
3.Right to Grievance Redressal
4.Right to Nominate
There is no specific mention about the “Right to Compensation” as was available under section 62 of the earlier Bill.
Does this mean that the Data principal has no right to seek compensation?
It is possible that at the next stage Government may add “Right to Seek Compensation” as another right associated with the “Grievance Redressal” since the harm as defined under the Act do recognize the financial gain or loss.
It is also possible to achieve a similar effect by adding a definition of “Grievance” as any perceived harm caused to the data principal in the course of the processing of the personal data of the individual.
Since “Causation of significant loss” loss is one of the harms recognized despite the use of the word “Significant” causing its own problems, the data principle aggrieved by the breach of DPDP provisions can raise a grievance for being compensated.
However one may also take a view that the passage of DPDPB 2022 into an act only takes down Section 43A of ITA 2000. However, the provisions of Section 43 of ITA 2000 still remains. Under Section 43, compensation can be claimed for any contravention of ITA 2000 and harm caused in a Data Breach situation can also be considered as a contravention of ITA 2000 under one of the provisions of Section 43. With this there may be a possibility of invoking ITA 2000 for compensation of the data principal as an additional remedy.
Naavi
