Appellate Tribunal

The Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 defines the term "Appellate Tribunal" to identify the specific legal body responsible for handling appeals under the law. Instead of creating a new tribunal exclusively for data protection matters, the Act assigns this responsibility to an existing institution. \n\nUnder this definition, the Appellate Tribunal is explicitly stated to be the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal. This specific tribunal was originally established under section 14 of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India Act, 1997. \n\nBy defining the term this way, the Act ensures that any reference to the Appellate Tribunal throughout the text points directly to this established telecom tribunal. This means that the existing framework of the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal is utilized for the purposes of the Digital Personal Data Protection Act. Whenever a Data Fiduciary, Data Principal, or the Board interacts with the Appellate Tribunal under this Act, they are dealing with this specific telecom body.

Key points

• The term "Appellate Tribunal" refers to the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal [Section 2(a)].
• This tribunal was established under section 14 of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India Act, 1997 [Section 2(a)].
• The Act uses this existing tribunal rather than creating a new one for data protection appeals [Section 2(a)].

Common misreadings

• People might think the Act creates a new, dedicated data protection tribunal, but it actually uses the existing Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal.