Section 25: Members and Officers to be Public Servants
Section 25 is a single, dense sentence with real legal consequences: everyone connected to the Board — Chairperson, Members, officers and employees — is treated as a public servant under the Indian Penal Code whenever acting under the Act, exposing them to specific criminal-law protections and liabilities.
Quick summary
What Section 25 says
- Section 25 — the Chairperson, Members, officers and employees of the Board shall be deemed, when acting or purporting to act in pursuance of the provisions of the Act, to be public servants within the meaning of Section 21 of the Indian Penal Code.
Breaking it down
This section imports a specific, well-established legal status — “public servant” under Section 21 of the Indian Penal Code — onto everyone connected to the Board, but only while they're acting (or purporting to act) under the DPDP Act's own provisions.
Public-servant status is a package deal with both protections and obligations. Under Indian criminal law generally, public-servant status brings specific offences that apply to (and protections that apply for) public servants — for example, heightened penalties for offences committed against a public servant in the discharge of their duty, and specific offences a public servant themselves can commit (such as those relating to corruption or abuse of office) that wouldn't apply to a private individual in the same role.
The status is scoped to acting under the Act — not a blanket personal status. “When acting or purporting to act in pursuance of the provisions of this Act” ties the public-servant designation specifically to Board-related conduct, not to every action a Board Chairperson, Member, officer or employee takes in their personal capacity.
“Purporting to act” extends the coverage beyond only correctly authorised action. This phrase means the deeming applies even where someone was acting under a mistaken belief they had authority to do so under the Act, not only where their action was fully and correctly authorised — broadening the practical scope of both the protections and the associated criminal-law obligations.
Why this section matters
Granting a regulatory body real investigatory and adjudicatory powers — summoning witnesses, inspecting documents, imposing penalties — without the accountability structure that comes with public-servant status would be an unusual and potentially risky design. Section 25 slots Board personnel into India's existing, well-understood framework for public-official accountability, rather than creating a novel, untested regime from scratch.
Real-world example
What public-servant status means in a concrete scenario
Consider a Board officer conducting an inquiry under Section 28 into a company's data-breach response.
- If someone obstructs or assaults that officer while they're conducting the inquiry — the heightened criminal-law consequences that apply to offences against a public servant discharging their duty become relevant, because Section 25 confers that status on the officer for this Act-related conduct.
- If that same officer were to accept a bribe in connection with the inquiry — the specific criminal offences applicable to public servants (rather than merely private individuals) would apply to their conduct, precisely because Section 25 deems them a public servant while acting under the Act.
Who needs to care about this section
- Board Chairperson, Members, officers and employees — this section defines their legal status, with both protective and accountability implications, whenever acting under the Act.
- Anyone interacting with the Board — in an inquiry, investigation or proceeding — relevant context for understanding the legal standing of the Board personnel involved.
Common questions
Does this mean Board Members are literally government employees?
Does public-servant status apply to everything a Board employee does, even outside work?
What is Section 21 of the Indian Penal Code?
Related sections
Section 26 — Powers of Chairperson
Continue to the next section in sequence.
Read Section 26Section 24 — Officers and Employees of Board
Go back to the previous section.
Read Section 24Chapter V — Data Protection Board of India
See every section in this chapter together.
View the chapterFull DPDP Act Guide
Back to the overview page, with the complete section-by-section guide.
View all 44 sections