New Delhi: Media outlets owned by billionaires Mukesh Ambani and Gautam Adani are a part of a 21-member group of news publishers that have challenged the 2023 Digital Personal Data Protection law, news agency Reuters has reported.Publishers allege that the contentious data privacy law will allow the government to identify journalists’ sources and defang investigative work entirely, the report said. The law is an invasion of press freedom, the publishers have contended in their petition filed in the Supreme Court.The publishers moved the top court on October 6 and the case will be heard on Tuesday (October 27), Reuters reported. According to documents cited by the agency, publishers said that despite being given assurances by the government on protection of press freedom, the lack of one in writing was “alarming”. The lawsuit is being deemed as the most high-profile challenge to the Modi government’s data protection law so far, the report said. Another striking aspect of the lawsuit is that it is being supported by outlets owned by Adani and Ambani – businessmen deemed close to the Modi government and the ruling saffron party.The publishers in their petition have demanded that most of the provisions of the controversial law, which will come into effect from May 2027, should be struck off, Reuters reported.Journalists fear that the new law could force them to get consent from an individual they wish to investigate, which “would allow that subject to destroy evidence, intimidate witnesses”, the petition accessed by Reuters said. The law could also empower the government to demand information that could expose reporters’ sources, the report said, adding that the law would “render investigative journalism a benign and neutered recorder of events”.The provisions “constitute pre-censorship which is anathema to any democracy worth its name”, the 698-page petition said.Digital News Publishers Association told Reuters that the government could impose fines for non-compliance and block access to any information in the “interests of the general public”.Citing another provision of the law which allows individuals to revoke consent at any time and demand their data be deleted, the publishers flagged that the lack of a public-interest safeguard in such cases could result in publishers being forced to take down or redact a heavily factual report.The petition comes at a time when India’s press freedom is reeling under pressure from the Modi government. The authoritarian excesses were on display only recently, when journalists covering protests against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar were detained, dragged and shoved into buses despite having clear identification on them. The government has also conveniently rejected India’s ranking on The World Press Freedom Index, which fell to 157 out of 180 from 140 in 2014, saying that it did not need the validation of foreign bodies, the report said.