{"id":118118,"date":"2026-08-09T10:33:04","date_gmt":"2026-08-09T05:03:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=118118"},"modified":"2026-08-09T12:39:42","modified_gmt":"2026-08-09T07:09:42","slug":"dpdp-act-rti-impact","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/dpdp-act-rti-impact\/","title":{"rendered":"DPDP Act and RTI: Supreme Court Examines Impact on Transparency and Journalism"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>DPDP Act and RTI Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Supreme Court has agreed to examine whether the <\/span><b>Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act, 2023<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> can be used to weaken the <\/span><b>Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, by classifying all data as &#8220;personal,&#8221; and whether it separately curtails investigative journalism.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Court is hearing multiple petitions challenging DPDP Act provisions, primarily <\/span><b>Section 44(3)<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>The Core Legal Question<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Court noted that both the DPDP Act and the RTI Act are central legislations, and there is a need to <\/span><b>harmonise<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> them.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It observed that while the RTI Act <\/span><b>granted access to information<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> with certain conditions, the DPDP Act imposes an &#8220;<\/span><b>en bloc embargo<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8221; \u2014 a blanket restriction.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Court will examine whether this later law is repugnant to the earlier RTI law, treating the matter with &#8220;extreme circumspection&#8221; since both are central statutes.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Different Scope of the Two Laws<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The apex court pointed out that the RTI Act operates in a <\/span><b>much larger domain<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, covering <\/span><b>all forms of data<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u2014 physical and digital.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The DPDP Act, by contrast, is concerned only with<\/span><b> data in digital form<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Court acknowledged that most data today is overwhelmingly digital, but this distinction remains legally significant.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Court will examine whether the DPDP Act&#8217;s restrictive &#8220;cautionary approach&#8221; to sharing data effectively repeals earlier transparency legislation like the RTI Act.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Section 44(3) of the DPDP Act: What It Changes in the RTI Act<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Section 44(3) of the DPDP Act directly <\/span><b>amended<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Section 8(1)(j) of the RTI Act 2005 &#8211; \u2014 expanding the scope for denying information on grounds of protecting personal data.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Original RTI provision<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Authorities <\/span><b>could deny personal information<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> only if it had no relation to public activity or if disclosure amounted to unwarranted invasion of privacy \u2014 but even then, information had to be disclosed if public interest outweighed privacy.\u00a0<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This balancing was done by a Public Information Officer or First Appellate Authority, weighing both privacy and transparency.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>After the amendment<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: The <\/span><b>&#8220;larger public interest&#8221; <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">clause has been<\/span><b> removed<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. All personal information is now broadly exempt from RTI disclosure, regardless of whether disclosure would serve the public interest.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><b>How This Affects RTI Requests<\/b><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Experts contend that this <\/span><b>inverts the right to privacy<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u2014 a right meant to protect citizens from State overreach \u2014 into a shield that instead protects the State and public functionaries from RTI disclosures.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-118136\" src=\"https:\/\/vajiramias.sgp1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp\/current-affairs\/2026\/08\/How-This-Affects-RTI-Requests.jpg\" alt=\"How This Affects RTI Requests\" width=\"692\" height=\"224\" \/><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">By removing the public-interest override, the amendment shifts the RTI framework from a <\/span><b>case-by-case balancing test<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to a <\/span><b>blanket, one-size-fits-all exemption<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This means information that was previously accessible \u2014 such as details relevant to exposing corruption or misconduct by public officials \u2014 can now be denied simply by labelling it &#8220;personal data,&#8221; without any assessment of whether disclosure would actually serve the public good.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Impact on Investigative Journalism<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As per the experts, the DPDP Act poses a grave threat to investigative journalism:<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Act grants no exemption to journalists.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Journalists reporting on individuals would need to seek the consent of the &#8220;data principal&#8221; (the person the data belongs to).<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If the data principal demands erasure of data, they can do so \u2014 directly undermining investigative reporting that relies on retaining and using such information.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>No Special Category for Journalists<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Court clarified that journalists cannot be treated as a &#8220;special category&#8221; with unrestricted access to data.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It noted that neither the landmark <\/span><b><i>Subhash Chandra Agarwal case<\/i><\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (on public transparency) nor the <\/span><b><i>Indian Express Bombay Pvt Ltd case<\/i><\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (on press freedom), nor the RTI Act itself, had ever granted journalists such special status.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Even so, the Court agreed to examine the broader impact of the DPDP Act on journalistic activity.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Conclusion<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This case sets up a crucial test of how India balances two constitutional values \u2014 the right to privacy and the right to information.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Court&#8217;s eventual ruling will determine whether data protection safeguards meant for citizens can be used by the State to shield itself from public scrutiny and accountability.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Source:<\/b> <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/news\/national\/sc-to-examine-impact-of-dpdp-law-on-rti-investigative-journalism\/article71317413.ece\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">TH<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>DPDP Act and RTI face a legal test over whether data protection rules could weaken transparency and investigative journalism.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":118134,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[9411,60,22,59],"class_list":["post-118118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-upsc-mains-current-affairs","tag-dpdp-act-and-rti","tag-mains-articles","tag-upsc-current-affairs","tag-upsc-mains-current-affairs-tag","no-featured-image-padding"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118118"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118118\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":118135,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118118\/revisions\/118135"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/118134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}