← Back to DPDP primerParaphrased legal text
A Data Fiduciary may process personal data of a Data Principal for specified legitimate uses including voluntary disclosure for a specified purpose, performance of a State function, compliance with a judgment or order, medical emergency, epidemic / disaster response, and employment-related purposes — without separate consent under §6.
What this means in plain English
- §7 carves out narrow grounds where consent under §6 is not required.
- Each ground is purpose-bound — you cannot piggy-back unrelated processing on a §7(e) medical-emergency basis.
- The Notice obligation under §5 still applies to most §7 grounds.
- Employment-related processing (§7(i)) is the most-used ground in practice; it must still be necessary and proportionate.
Penalty if you get this wrong
Mis-classifying a consent-required activity as a §7 ground exposes you to the unlawful-processing penalty band — up to ₹250 crore.
How ProtectComply solves it
Readiness Assessment + RoPA
- RoPA entry forces selection between §6 consent and §7 legitimate-use, with sub-ground (a)-(i)
- Assessment engine cross-checks each processing activity against its declared §7 ground
- AI Policy Generator drafts §5 Notices even where §7 is the lawful basis
- Audit log captures the lawful-basis declaration with every state change
See the module →