The story so far: The petitions challenging the amendment to the Right to Information (RTI) Act that provides blanket exemption for personal information, through a section in the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act, has been referred to a Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court in Puttaswamy (2017) had declared the right to privacy as a fundamental right primarily under Article 21 (right to life and liberty). It is also an overarching right that includes freedom of speech and expression (Article 19). In this judgment, the court had directed that the government must put forth a data protection regime.
