



Top lawyers, tall claims: Battle over India’s data privacy law to start in SC next week
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.NEW DELHI: Next week, the Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant will start hearing arguments for and against India’s first-ever data privacy law. After five separate public interest litigation petitions filed in February challenged the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act, these hearings starting 13 May could determine the future of what companies and government bodies can do with the personal data of 1.4 billion people.Both the Centre and the litigators have deployed batteries of top lawyers.
Court proceeding records accessed by Mint showed 38 lawyers representing those who filed the public interest litigation (PILs), including two of India’s senior-most advocates—member of Parliament Abhishek Manu Singhvi and senior activist and lawyer Prashant Bhushan. The Centre’s team of 17 lawyers is led by Tushar Mehta, India’s solicitor general.Litigators, activists and officials told Mint there are three issues at stake—dilution of the Right to Information Act, infringement of freedom of journalism, and sweeping exemptions afforded to the Centre through the DPDP Act, 2023, and its rules.The DPDP Act became law in August 2023 after it was passed by Parliament without debate and received the President’s assent.
The ministry of electronics and IT (Meity), the nodal ministry for the law, notified its rules in November 2025. The law is now set to be implemented by companies starting this November.So far, the Supreme Court has refused to halt the law—something that one of the five PILs has sought from the top court.
On 16 February, chief justice Kant said there was “no question” of staying the DPDP Act. Kant, however, said the court would hear all grievances against the act
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