New Delhi, February 18 The Delhi High Court on Wednesday sought the Centre's response to a petition challenging certain provisions of the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, which it alleged would enable excessive surveillance and control by the executive, while also undermining judicial independence.
A bench comprising Chief Justice D K Upadhyaya and Justice Tejas Karia issued a notice to the Central government on the petition filed by Chandresh Jain, and listed it for hearing in April.
The petition claimed that sections 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 23, 29, 30, 36, 37, 39, 40, and 44 of the Digital Personal Data Protection Act (DPDPA) and its rules enable unchecked executive access to data, block access without hearing, lack meaningful consent, opaque exemptions, weaken the Right to Information Act, and create a data protection board and appellate tribunal controlled by the executive.
The petition added that these provisions "strike at the heart of human rights jurisprudence, constitutionally guaranteed freedoms, and the democratic promise of a free society."
"The DPD Act and DPD Rules together enable broad state surveillance, long-term storage of personal and behavioral data, excessive executive control over the data protection board, and opaque mechanisms for obtaining personal data without consent or transparency," the petition said.
"The challenged provisions collectively violate the constitutional guarantees of equality, privacy, informational autonomy, free expression, and procedural fairness. The provisions also violate the constitutional principles of separation of powers and judicial independence," it added.
The petition also claimed that the Act fails to create a "right-protective" privacy framework, and that the provisions must be struck down, amended, or severed to be in conformity with the Constitution.