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Informist, Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2026

 

NEW DELHI – The Delhi High Court Wednesday issued a notice to the Centre on a public interest litigation challenging some of the provisions of the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 and Digital Personal Data Protection Rules, 2025. The petitioner Chandresh Jain, a practising advocate, has raised concerns about privacy, transparency, freedom of expression, digital governance, and judicial independence in the 2023 Act and 2025 Rules.

 

While the 2023 Act and 2025 Rules claim to protect privacy, their institutional architecture creates an executive-controlled adjudicatory regime, expansive state exemptions, and broad blocking powers, which cumulatively threaten constitutional guarantees under the Constitution of India, the petitioner said. Section 17 of the 2023 Act permits the Central Government to exempt its own agencies from privacy safeguards. Such broad exemptions lack proportionality safeguards required by the Supreme Court's privacy jurisprudence and risk enabling unchecked surveillance, the petitioner said.

 

The 2023 Act introduces blocking powers that may exceed the procedural safeguards previously recognised by constitutional courts in digital speech cases, it said, adding that these provisions may create a chilling effect on journalism, whistleblowing, and digital expression.

 

The Data Protection Board functions as an adjudicatory tribunal, conducting inquiries, determining violations, imposing penalties of hundreds of crores, and issuing binding directions. However, the board's composition, tenure, appointments, and administrative control remain heavily dependent on the executive, the petitioner said. This structure violates settled constitutional principles governing tribunal independence and separation of powers, the petition added.

 

The statutory appellate framework routes appeals from the board to the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal and, thereafter, directly to the Supreme Court, thereby bypassing the high court's supervisory jurisdiction, the petitioner said.

 

Further, the petitioner has challenged amendments to Section 8(1)(j) of the Right to Information Act, 2005, introduced through the 2023 Act, arguing that these dilute the public interest balancing mechanism that historically enabled disclosure of information relating to governance and accountability.

 

On Monday, the Supreme Court had referred pleas challenging some sections of the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 and Digital Personal Data Protection Rules, 2025, to a larger bench. The petitions challenged sections that allowed public authorities to blanketly refuse information on the ground that it was "personal" in nature, empowered the Centre to seek information from data fiduciaries, and authorised the selection of members of the Data Protection Board.  End

 

Reported by Surya Tripathi

Edited by Saji George Titus

 

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