India’s top court seeks response on publishers’ privacy law challenge

The Supreme Court of India has sought responses from the central government and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology on a challenge by the Digital News Publishers Association to the country’s data privacy law. The court declined to grant an interim stay before hearing the government and scheduled the next hearing for November 17, 2026, according to a report on the proceedings. The association argues that the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, and related rules do not provide a written exemption for journalism. At a hearing on October 27, its counsel, Madhavi Goradia Divan, said requiring journalists to obtain permission from people they investigate would amount to precensorship and could threaten newsrooms. Those are the petitioners’ claims, not findings by the court. The DNPA says the law’s notice and consent requirements could alert investigation subjects before reporting is complete, giving them an opportunity to destroy evidence or intimidate witnesses. It also objects to provisions allowing people to withdraw consent and request erasure of personal data, arguing these could force publishers to remove or substantially edit published reports and...