Authors: Dr. Satish Chandra, Kritika Tyagi pursuing, Ritesh Kumar pursuing
Abstract: The digital age has placed data as an extraordinary intangible asset in the insolvency domain, yet its monetization sharply collides with the protective measures that provide privacy. The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) of 2016 has made it mandatory for corporate debtors to maximize the value of the asset, usually through asset-wise sale under CIRP Regulation 29 or liquidation. This would include digital assets such as customer databases and proprietary user data. High-profile cases like Jet Airways have shocked the international community with the lifeblood of the company in question, viz. JetPrivilege: Passenger Data; eventually, such information is furnished for sale, raising questions on how it could be misused. Valuing such data is a Herculean task, given the varied methodologies followed–be it market, income, or cost approach–emulating the peculiar difficulties in IP asset valuation. Concurrently, the Digital Personal Data Protection Act (DPDP) of India 2023 provides wide-ranging rights to data principals and sets out obligations for data fiduciaries regarding consent, purpose limitation, and cross-border transfers. Enforcement will fall upon the newly set-up Data Protection Board. Some insolvency-related data processing (for example, through NeSL) might be spared from the full reach of the Act's legitimate-uses carve-out. The conflict between the creditor-oriented goal of maximizing asset value and the demands of data privacy creates a regulatory dilemma. This study proposes a synchronized legal framework, consisting of valuations standardized uniformly, specifications setting out IBC interfaces with DPDP, and procedural safeguards enabling speedy insolvency resolutions while safeguarding individual privacy rights.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19927400
