Joint statement by RTI and privacy activists on the amendments to Section 8(1)(j) of the RTI Act proposed by the Committee of Experts under the Chairpersonship of Justice BN Srikrishna: *** The Right to Information (RTI) and the Right to Privacy (RTP) are fundamental rights flowing from the Indian Constitution. The State has an obligation to protect and promote both rights. To strengthen democracy and constitutional freedoms, it is critical that the two rights be carefully balanced. The Justice Srikrishna Committee, tasked with drafting the Data Protection Bill, was therefore expected to develop a framework harmonizing the need to protect certain kinds of personal data with the provisions of the Right to Information Act, 2005, which lays out the statutory framework for Indian citizens to access information, including personal information. However, the Draft Data Protection Bill, 2018 (DPB) prepared by the committee, fails to safeguard and balance the two. If accepted, the amendments pr