SC seeks Centre’s reply on plea by media association against privacy law
· Scroll
The Supreme Court on Tuesday issued notice to the Union government seeking its response to a petition challenging the Digital Personal Data Protection Act and its rules, Bar and Bench reported.
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The 2025 Digital Personal Data Protection Rules were notified by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology in November 2025, bringing into effect the 2023 Digital Personal Data Protection Act.
Section 44(3) of the Act imposes a blanket ban on the disclosure of personal information without defining what constitutes “personal information”.
The Digital News Publishers Association, which represents 21 media publishers, including those owned by businesspersons Mukesh Ambani and Gautam Adani, has challenged the law, citing violation of journalistic freedom, The Hindu reported.
The petition said that the law “threatens the full spectrum of journalistic activity carried out by journalists, ground reporters, citizens, whistleblowers, Right to Information activists and other stakeholders”, The Hindu reported.
The Act was contrary to the Supreme Court’s privacy judgement, which recognised the right to privacy as inviolable and fundamental to human dignity and life, the association contended.
The law “impermissibly restricts” the fundamental right to information, and freedom of speech and expression, the newspaper quoted the petition as saying.
The rules had clarified how organisations processing personal data should handle it, notify individuals of data breaches and obtain consent for data collection.
The organisations, which the Act categorises as data...