The Personal Data Protection Bill 2019, which was introduced in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday, has been referred to a joint select committee of both Houses of Parliament.

The panel will have 20 members from the Lok Sabha including Meenakshi Lekhi, PP Chaudhary, SS Ahluwalia and Tejasvi Surya, and 10 from the Rajya Sabha.

A resolution moved by Ravi Shankar Prasad, Minister of Information and Technology, Telecom and Law & Justice, was passed by the Lok Sabha by a voice vote.

The Upper House will give names of the members it wants to send to the panel. The committee will submit its report before the end of the Budget session, which usually begins in the last week of January.

“The committee shall make a report to this House by the first day of the last week of the Budget Session, 2020; that in other respects the Rules of Procedure of this House relating to Parliamentary Committee shall apply with such variations and modifications as the Speaker may make,” said the terms of reference for the committee in the supplementary list of business.

It also added that the Speaker will appoint one of the members of the committee as its Chairperson.

Other members of the joint committee from the Lok Sabha include Ajay Bhatt, Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, Sanjay Jaiswal, Uday Pratap Singh, Rajiv Ranjan Singh, Gaurav Gogoi, S Jothi Mani, Kanimozhi and Ritesh Pandey.

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