Five Bharatiya Janata Party MPs and one each from the Samajwadi Party and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam have occupied seven vacant positions in the Joint Committee on the Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019, News18 reported on Wednesday.

The parliamentary committee is tasked with examining the draft data protection bill, which proposes to put restrictions on the use of personal information of people without their explicit consent. The items covered by the draft bill include consent, personal data, exemptions that can be granted, storage restrictions for personal data and individual rights.

Five positions on the committee became vacant as the members became ministers after the Cabinet reshuffle in July. BJP MP Meenakshi Lekhi, who was the chairperson of the committee, became the Minister of State for External Affairs and Culture.

Ashwini Vaishnaw got the information technology portfolio, while Bhupendar Yadav became the labour and employment minister, Ajay Bhatt and Rajeev Chandrasekhar were appointed as junior ministers. DMK leader Kanimozhi resigned from the committee, while another MP had retired, according to News18.

BJP MPs Satyapal Singh, Rakesh Sinha, Vinay Sahastrabuddhe, Sudhanshu Trivedi and Aparajita Sarangi have been appointed to the committee, along with Samajwadi Party’s Ram Gopal Yadav and DMK MP Dayanidhi Maran. BJP’s PP Chaudhary is the new chairperson of the committee.

The Joint Committee on the Personal Data Protection Bill comprises 20 members from the Lok Sabha and 10 from the Rajya Sabha. It had first got an extension to review the bill till the Winter Session of Parliament last year. It then received another extension till the first week of the second half of the budget session. The report is now likely to be submitted in the Monsoon Session.

The committee has held meetings with civil society members, industry representatives and other stakeholders in the process of reviewing the bill, the Hindustan Times reported.