India DPDP Act 2023 LB-003 — Emergency & Public Interest Processing Protocol

What this control requires

Define and implement a protocol for processing personal data under emergency, epidemic, or public interest/disaster grounds (Sec 7(c)(d)(e)). For each instance of reliance on these grounds, document: ground relied upon, start and end date, data categories processed, legal necessity justification, and post-event review. Objective: Ensure emergency-based processing is proportionate, time-limited, and documented, preventing abuse of these exceptional grounds.

In plain English

Define and implement a protocol for processing personal data under emergency, epidemic, or public interest/disaster grounds (Sec 7(c)(d)(e)). In practice, this means you can prove you implement emergency-level controls on a defined cadence.

Why it matters

Penalties under the DPDP Act reach ₹250 crore per instance of significant non-compliance, and the Act applies extra-territorially to any entity processing personal data of individuals in India in connection with offering goods or services.

This control is rated high. Auditors expect a named owner, a remediation SLA, and a tooling artefact that evidences continuous operation.

What an auditor looks for

Indian DPAs and statutory auditors will look for: documented consent capture and revocation flows, a designated Data Protection Officer (for Significant Data Fiduciaries), breach-notification workflows tied to Data Protection Board notification timelines, and Records of Processing that match the consent notice the user saw.

Within Lawful Basis, the assessor will trace your implementation back to the catalogue reference (Control LB-003) and look for objective evidence on the latest two assessment cycles.

How to implement

Policy Management

Docs. Keep each policy in version-controlled Markdown alongside the code that implements it; ship a signed PDF snapshot at each annual review and link the SHA into the SoA.

Operational checklist

• Implement. Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
• Define. Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
• Document. Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
• Scope: emergency, public interest processing protocol.

Evidence to collect

• Policy Document. A signed and version-controlled policy / standard / procedure document.

Signed policies, procedures, and registers document the safeguard. Focus: Emergency & Public Interest Processing Protocol.

Common pitfalls

• Policies that no engineer has read; the version in Confluence drifts from the version that's actually being enforced.

How it maps to other frameworks

Computed from shared tags, control component and key-operation subjects — handy when you are reconciling controls across an audit.

• ISO/IEC 27701:2025 A.1.2.9 — Records related to processing PII
• GDPR Article 17 — Right to erasure ('right to be forgotten')
• SOC 2 (2017 TSC) P2.1 — Communication of Data Subject Choices and Consequences

Related controls in India DPDP Act 2023

• Control LB-002 — Legal Obligation Processing Register
• Control LB-004 — Voluntary Disclosure Processing Notice & Opt-Out
• Control LB-001 — Consent Quality & Management
• Control SC-007 — Lawful Processing Matrix
• Control LB-005 — Employee Privacy Notice & HR Data Governance
• Control SC-008 — Children's Data Processing Controls

References

• Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (India) — India DPDP Act 2023
• Catalogue identifier: Control LB-003

Topics: governance riskdata protectionprivacy managementpolicy management