Chapter 1 · Preliminary
Section 1 - Short Title and Commencement
When and how the Act comes into forceThis is the section that names the law and switches it on.
Download full Act (PDF)In plain English
This is the section that names the law and switches it on. It gives the Act its official title - the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 - and makes clear the law does not all start at once. The Central Government notifies commencement dates in the Official Gazette, and it may bring different provisions into force on different dates. So each provision only binds you from the day it is actually notified.
The sections setting up the Data Protection Board may be notified months before the consent and notice obligations, so you track each provision's own start date rather than a single 'go-live' date.
Key points
- Names the law: the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023.
- Comes into force on dates the Central Government notifies in the Official Gazette.
- Different provisions can be switched on at different times - not everything starts on one day.
- A reference to 'commencement' means the day that particular provision comes into force.
Official section text
Section 1. Short title and commencement.
This Act may be called the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023.
It shall come into force on such date as the Central Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, appoint and different dates may be appointed for different provisions of this Act and any reference in any such provision to the commencement of this Act shall be construed as a reference to the coming into force of that provision.