New Delhi, March 13 -- The Supreme Court on Thursday said that the determination of what constitutes "public data" and "private data" is crucial to decide the validity of the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act, 2023 and the corresponding Rules of 2025 as it agreed to examine a petition challenging the law along with a batch of similar petitions listed later this month.

The court was dealing with a petition filed by a journalist Geeta Seshu along with Software Freedom Law Centre (SFLC) which raised concerns of state surveillance, exemptions granted to state agencies for gathering private data, compensation for cases of wrongful or illegal access, and lack of judicial oversight and independence of the Data Protection Board which a...