Media Groups Challenge India’s Privacy Law in Supreme Court Petition, Al Jazeera Reports

A group of Indian news publishers has challenged the country’s privacy law at the Supreme Court of India, Al Jazeera reported on 27 October 2026. The challenge was filed by the Digital News Publishers Association (DNPA), which Al Jazeera describes as a group of 21 news publishers and whose lawyer addressed the court. Its members include Network18, owned by Mukesh Ambani, NDTV, owned by Gautam Adani, The Indian Express and Times Internet, part of the Times of India group. Al Jazeera says the court has said it will hear the case next month.

What the Publishers Argue

According to the report, the law introduced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government would require journalists to seek consent from the people they write about. Madhavi Goradia Divan, counsel for the DNPA, told the judges: “It is changing the whole concept of what is news.” She argued that “newsrooms will shut down, if we have to ask for permission” and described the result as “a complete regime of pre-censorship”.

The publishers set out several specific objections, as summarised by Al Jazeera:

• Requiring reporters to notify and obtain consent from the subjects of investigations, they say, “would allow that subject to destroy evidence, intimidate witnesses”.
• Subjects could withdraw consent and demand erasure of data without any public-interest safeguard, which the DNPA says could force articles to be unpublished or heavily redacted.
• A federal authority created under the law could impose fines for non-compliance, and the law gives the government powers to block access to information in the “interests of the general public”.
• From next year, the government could order any organisation handling personal data to supply information, which the DNPA says risks forcing newsrooms to reveal their sources.
• The law may deter whistleblowers from sharing information about corruption, corporate wrongdoing or electoral malpractice.

The DNPA calls one provision “nakedly unguided” and says it “must be quashed”. It also says the lack of a written exemption for journalists, of the kind found in the EU, Singapore and Britain, is “alarming”.

The Government’s Position

Al Jazeera reports no official government response to the petition. The Tribune later reported that on 27 October the Supreme Court issued notice to the Centre, declined to stay the challenged provisions and listed the case for 17 November. The law challenged is the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, according to The Tribune. Al Jazeera says media companies received assurances at a meeting with the government in August that the law would protect press freedom.

Why It Matters

The case asks the court to consider how personal-data rules apply to journalism, including when the subject of a story objects to being named. In our view, the hearing next month matters beyond India’s newsrooms, because the arguments about consent, erasure and state access to data will be familiar to regulators in many countries. The publishers’ claims are their own reading of the law; the court has issued notice to the government but has not ruled on the merits, and the government’s reply will shape how the case develops.