Comments on the Draft Digital Personal Data Protection Rules, 2025
Submission to Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology
The Digital Personal Data Protection Act was passed by Parliament in 2023. In order to implement the Act, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Government of India, released the Draft Digital Personal Data Protection Rules in January 2025, and invited public comments on the same. In this regard, the Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy has submitted detailed rule-wise comments to MeitY on issues arising under the Draft Rules, and also proposed relevant recommendations. Some of the major themes dealt with in the submission include:
- Issues surrounding the lack of anonymisation standards, and the standards for processing personal data under the research exemption.
- Issues surrounding the autonomy and powers of the Board, which may impact the effective enforcement of the Act.
- Issues surrounding verifiable consent of parents and guardians for processing of personal data of children.
- Issues surrounding the standards for processing of personal data by the State.
These comments are a continuation of Vidhi’s existing work and initiatives in the field of data protection, including assisting the Srikrishna Committee in the drafting of the Personal Data Protection Bill, 2018. It is hoped that these comments will contribute towards the creation of a robust and comprehensive data protection regime in India.
The authors are grateful to the following for their contributions to specific issues / provisions of this submission: Damini Ghosh, Rahul Bajaj, Varsha Banta, Neha Lodha, Arhat Chhabra, Yashaswini Basu and Debargha Roy. The authors would also like to thank Samrudh Shirolkar (Intern, Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy) for his research assistance during his internship with Vidhi.
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About the Authors
Nirmalya Chaudhuri graduated with a BA LLB (Hons.) degree from the West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences (NUJS) in 2023. Subsequently, he earned his LLM degree from the University of Cambridge in 2024, on a fully-funded Cambridge Trust scholarship. His articles and blog posts have been published in the Indian Journal of Constitutional Law, De Lege Ferenda (the undergraduate supplementary journal to the Cambridge Law Review), the Oxford Human Rights Hub Blog, the Berkeley Journal of International Law Blog, among others. His interests lie in the realm of privacy and data protection, and the broader constitutional and regulatory issues that they raise, especially in light of emerging technology. When not thinking or writing about the law, he enjoys reading classical novels, with a preference for dystopian fiction.
Shehnaz leads the Applied Law and Technology Research (ALTR) at Vidhi, where she specialises in technology law and policy. At Vidhi, she has worked with several Government Ministries/ Departments and regulators on matters relating to digital public infrastructure, data protection, artificial intelligence, and fintech. Her work at Vidhi focuses on developing legal and policy solutions to ensure that innovation serves society equitably and responsibly. Before joining Vidhi, she also worked with the Financial Regulatory Practice at Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas.
Vrinda is a Senior Resident Fellow with the Applied Law and Technology Research (ALTR) team at Vidhi. She works with central and state government departments and regulators to draft legislation and policies on data governance, artificial intelligence, digitisation of public services delivery, and FinTech regulation. Before joining Vidhi, Vrinda's work spanned transactions, regulatory advisory, dispute resolution, and advocacy. She worked with the FinTech/ financial regulatory and dispute resolution teams at Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co. Subsequently, she established her independent practice focused on technology law advisory and dispute resolution, as part of which she assisted the amicus curiae in the first copyright litigation concerning AI models in India. Vrinda obtained her B.A. LL.B. (Honors) degree from Rajiv Gandhi National University of Law, Punjab.
Kahaan is a Research Fellow in the Applied Law and Technology Research Team at Vidhi. His experience in the technology law and policy space is diverse, spanning academia, strategic litigation, and advocacy. Previously, he has worked at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (Washington D.C.), the Software Freedom Law Center, India (SFLC.in), and at the Daksha Fellowship. His work has focused on areas such as internet shutdowns, technological due process, digital free speech, privacy, and AI governance. He has worked on reports on different subjects at the intersection of law and technology commissioned by the United Kingdom Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office (UK FCDO), the European Commission (EC), among others. His work often incorporates an interdisciplinary perspective, specifically from the fields of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), system design principles, and philosophy of technology. He graduated from Symbiosis Law School, Pune in 2021 with an LL.B., and secured his LL.M. in Technology Law and Policy from the Georgetown University Law Center, Washington D.C. in 2024.
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