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ARTICLE · 27 JANUARY 2026

State As Data Collector, Child As Data Subject: Madurai Bench Quashes Tamil Nadu's Sensitive Data Circular

IndiaLaw LLP
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In an era where welfare administration is rapidly digitised, the Madras High Court (Madurai Bench) has redrawn the constitutional boundary between benign State paternalism and the privacy rights of children.

IndiaPrivacy
Rahul Sundaram
Rahul Sundaram

Introduction

In an era where welfare administration is rapidly digitised, the Madras High Court (Madurai Bench) has redrawn the constitutional boundary between benign State paternalism and the privacy rights of children. In a writ petition that pitted a public spirited individual against the entire educational bureaucracy of Tamil Nadu, the Division Bench of Dr. Justice G. Jayachandran and Mr. Justice K.K. Ramakrishnan quashed a government school data collection circular that required teachers to harvest deeply personal information from adolescent students. The judgment, delivered on 5 January 2026 in W.P.(MD) No. 29474 of 2025, is the latest application of the Supreme Court's transformative decision in Justice K.S. Puttaswamy (Retd.) v. Union of India to the schoolhouse.

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