Algorithmic Sovereignty as a Constitutional Imperative: India’s Digital Governance Challenge

India’s accelerating digital transformation has embedded algorithms deep within governance from Aadhaar to CoWIN, DigiLocker, and the 2025 Online Gaming Act, redefining how rights, welfare, and accountability operate. Yet, as automated decision-making systems determine entitlements, surveillance, and access, they often function beyond judicial or legislative scrutiny. Drawing upon constitutional doctrines of fairness, proportionality, and reason-giving under Maneka Gandhi and Puttaswamy, this paper conceptualises algorithmic sovereignty as a constitutional imperative: the State’s duty to subject algorithmic power to the discipline of constitutional accountability. Through analysis of the IT Act, DPDP Act, new criminal codes, and sectoral statutes, it demonstrates how India’s digital state delegates sovereignty to code without adequate transparency, oversight, or remedy. The paper proposes a framework of algorithmic impact assessments, independent audits, and rights to explanation and human review, re-anchoring digital governance in Articles 14, 19, and 21, and restoring the rule of law over automated power.