Supreme Court notices DPDP challenge
India’s Supreme Court has issued notice to the Centre on a public-interest petition challenging provisions of the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) law, bringing the statute into active legal contest. (hindustantimes.com) The petition specifically targets Section 44(3), which substituted a provision in the Right to Information Act and is alleged to enable masking or deletion of available data. (livelaw.in) Practical compliance resources such as DPDP checklists are already circulating to help businesses prepare for shifting obligations. (wattlecorp.com)
India’s Supreme Court has asked the Union government to answer a petition challenging parts of the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023. (hindustantimes.com) The order came on Monday, April 13, 2026, from a bench led by Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi. The court also directed that Rajasthan be added as a party in the case, according to court reports. (hindustantimes.com) The petition focuses on Section 44(3) of the data law. That clause replaced Section 8(1)(j) of the Right to Information Act, 2005 with a shorter exemption covering “information which relates to personal information.” (indiacode.nic.in) Under the older Right to Information wording, personal information could still be disclosed if a larger public interest justified it. Petitioners say the new wording removes that balancing test and can block access to records that were previously disclosable. (livelaw.in) The Digital Personal Data Protection Act itself became law on August 11, 2023. It created India’s national framework for handling digital personal data, including duties for companies and rights for individuals whose data is collected. (indiacode.nic.in) The case lands after the law moved from statute to enforcement. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology published the Digital Personal Data Protection Rules, 2025 and an enforcement timeline on November 14, 2025, and also announced the establishment of the Data Protection Board of India that day. (meity.gov.in) That means two tracks are now running at once: businesses are preparing for compliance while the law’s effect on transparency is being tested in court. Compliance guides and checklists for companies have already started circulating in the private sector as firms map consent notices, grievance systems and data retention practices. (wattlecorp.com) The government’s stated position in the law is that data processing should recognize both privacy rights and the need to use data for lawful purposes. The petitioners’ position is that the change to the Right to Information Act goes beyond privacy protection and narrows public access to official information. (indiacode.nic.in) The Supreme Court has not ruled on the merits yet. For now, it has opened the door to a direct judicial test of whether India’s new data-protection regime can coexist with the older transparency law in its current form. (business-standard.com)
