Section 14 — DPDP Act, 2023
(1) A Data Principal shall have the right to nominate, in the manner prescribed, any individual who shall, in the event of death or incapacity of the Data Principal, exercise the rights of the Data Principal under the provisions of this Act. (2) For the purposes of sub-section (1), "incapacity" means a state of being unable to exercise rights under this Act due to a mental illness or mental disability.
Source: Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023. Official text available at truconsent.io/resources/dpdp-act.pdf.
Section 14 is the shortest section in Chapter III, but it creates a new operational requirement: Data Fiduciaries must build a nomination mechanism that allows Data Principals to designate who can exercise their data rights after death or mental incapacity. 'Incapacity' is defined narrowly — it means mental illness or mental disability, not general account inactivity or a temporary inability to log in. This right makes personal data rights survivable in a way that most existing data systems do not support.
A Data Principal who has nominated their spouse passes away. The spouse can now exercise Section 11 (access), Section 12 (correction/erasure), and Section 13 (grievance) rights on behalf of the deceased. The platform must have a process to verify the nomination and authenticate the nominee before fulfilling requests.
Section 14 does not say Data Fiduciaries must proactively collect nominations — it says Data Principals shall have the right to nominate. The practical implication is that your rights management system must have a nomination flow that is accessible and discoverable to users who want to use it.