New Delhi - A group of 21 news publishers, including companies owned by Mukesh Ambani and Gautam Adani, has challenged India's privacy law in court, arguing it would trample investigative work and let New Delhi identify journalists' sources, Reuters reported on Monday, October 26, citing documents it reviewed.

Source: Reuters via WTBX

21 publishersNews publishers in the challenge, Reuters reported
October 6Date of the DNPA lawsuit, reported for the first time on October 26
May 2027When the law's contentious provisions kick in, the publishers say
TuesdayWhen the case is due to be heard

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government last year announced implementation of a privacy law to protect the digital personal data of users, raising compliance requirements for platforms like Meta and Google. The publishers have said that since media outlets were not exempt, the law was an invasion of press freedom, Reuters reported.

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Media companies received assurances in an August meeting with the government that the law would protect press freedom, but not having a written carve-out for journalists like in the European Union, Singapore and Britain was alarming, India's Digital News Publishers Association (DNPA) said in a confidential filing at the Supreme Court, reviewed by Reuters. The October 6 lawsuit is due to be heard on Tuesday and is the most high-profile challenge to the privacy law so far; until now, only free speech activists and a group of smaller news outlets had challenged it, Reuters said.

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The publishers are demanding that most of the law's contentious provisions, which kick in from May 2027, should be quashed. They argue the law could force a journalist to get prior consent from a person they want to investigate and force publishers to erase stories, and that powers granted by the law to demand information could expose reporters' sources, Reuters reported. DNPA and the media groups did not respond to requests for comment from Reuters, and neither did India's information technology ministry.

Source: Reuters via Devdiscourse

Reuters noted the challenge is unusual from businesses headed by Ambani and Adani, who opposition parties allege are close to Modi and get favourable treatment - charges the businesses and the government vehemently deny. Those are allegations by opposition parties, reported as such.

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Sources: Reuters report, October 26, 2026, via WTBX; Reuters report as carried by Devdiscourse, updated October 26, 2026.

Source: Reuters via WTBX