The Supreme Court will hear a petition on February 16 challenging India's new Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act of 2023. The petition is filed by activist Venkatesh Nayak, represented by lawyer Vrinda Grover. It argues that Section 44(3) of the DPDP Act changes the Right to Information (RTI) Act to let public authorities refuse information simply because it is called "personal." The petition says this misuses the right to privacy to stop people from getting important public information. Earlier, the RTI law allowed refusal only if the personal information was unrelated to public activities or if revealing it would cause an unwarranted privacy invasion. Even then, authorities had to balance privacy against public interest. Now, the petition claims, the new rule blocks information outright without this balancing. The National Campaign for People's Right to Information (NCPRI), represented by advocate Prashant Bhushan, said this change is a "structural alteration" that removes the gatekeeping process that ensured fair judgment. The petition by Ms. Grover adds that this amendment gives too much power to the Executive and violates constitutional rights including free speech and equality. It also argues that equating privacy rights of public officials with ordinary citizens harms transparency and open governance. The DPDP Act’s definition of personal data is broad, covering any information related to a person’s identity, which could make RTI requests useless. The petitions also challenge DPDP Rules, 2025, saying they give too much control to the Executive over key appointments and allow the Centre to demand data without clear rules. They criticize the penalties section for lacking clear standards on what counts as a "significant" data breach. The Supreme Court’s hearing will focus on these wide-ranging issues about privacy, transparency, and democracy under the new digital data law.