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Informist, Friday, Aug. 7, 2026

 

NEW DELHI – The Supreme Court Friday said it will have to decide whether there can be a blanket prohibition on disclosure of all digital personal information, or whether laws have to adopt a proportionate approach. It observed that a careful balance would have to be struck between the citizen's right to information and the fundamental right to privacy. The apex court was hearing pleas challenging some sections of the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, and Digital Personal Data Protection Rules, 2025. The petitions challenged sections that allow public authorities to blankly refuse information under The Right to Information Act, 2005, on the ground that these were "personal" in nature, empowers the Centre to seek information from data fiduciaries, and the selection of members of the Data Protection Board.

 

The top court said The Right to Information Act operates on a much larger domain, and it covers all forms of information, not merely digital information. The Digital Personal Data Protection Act operates on a much narrower sliver, although this domain now constitutes the overwhelming part of information and the State appears to have adopted a more cautionary approach. "The question is whether that cautionary approach, and the classification it creates, has a reasonable and intelligible differentia having regard to the object of the law," a bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi, and Justice V. Mohana said.

 

Solicitor General of India Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre, said he will justify the amendments made to the law by the government. Mehta sought two weeks to file the Centre's response. The court, impleading the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, gave time to the government to file its reply.

 

Human rights and transparency activist Venkatesh Nayak, the National Campaign for People's Right to Information, The Reporters' Collective, and Nitin Sethi, a journalist, have challenged some sections of the 2023 Act and the 2025 Rules. They have said Section 44(3) of the 2023 Act has amended Section 8(1)(j) of The Right to Information Act, 2005, to allow public authorities to refuse information on the ground that the details sought were of a "personal" nature. The petitioners said the amendment had turned the fundamental right to privacy on its head. The right, meant to protect ordinary citizens against state incursion, has been extended to protect the State and public functionaries from Right to Information disclosures, the petitioners said.

 

The petitioners said the constitutional consequence of the amendment was immediate and serious. Every RTI application involving identifiable public officials, procurement records, audit reports, appointment files, utilisation of public funds, or exercise of statutory discretion can now be denied automatically on the ground that it "relates to personal information", the petitioners said. The balancing mechanism that ensured proportionality has been dismantled, they said. 

 

They have also challenged Section 36 of the 2023 Act, read with Rule 23 of the 2025 Rules, which empowered the Centre to call for information from data fiduciaries and intermediaries. The section and rule were vague and arbitrary and violated the right to equality and right to various freedoms, including freedom of speech and expression, as intrusions by the government on information were not demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society, the petitioners said.

 

In addition, the petitioners have challenged provisions of the 2025 Rules, which provide the executive branch the dominance in the formation of search-cum-selection committees for the appointment of the chairperson and members of the Data Protection Board. The petitioners said the executive dominance was in violation of the doctrine of separation of powers.

 

The 2023 Act applies to the processing of digital personal data within India where such data is collected online or offline, and is digitised. It also applies to such processing outside India, if it is for offering goods or services in India. The 2023 Act grants certain rights to individuals, including the right to obtain information, seek correction and erasure, and grievance redressal. Last year, the government notified the 2025 Rules, which sought to protect citizens' digital data.  End

 

Reported by Surya Tripathi

Edited by Shubhayan Bhattacharya

 

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