SWITCHED OFF BY ORDER: INTERNET SHUTDOWNS IN INDIA AFTER ANURADHA BHASIN AND THE TELECOMMUNICATIONS ACT 2023

Author

Anushka Singh,Adarsh Jain,Kshitij Gondal

Abstract

 India has, for most of the past decade, shut down the internet more often than any other country in the world, and it remains the most frequent perpetrator among democracies. The legal architecture that permits this has changed more in the last six years than in the preceding century. In Anuradha Bhasin v Union of India the Supreme Court held that expression and trade through the medium of the internet enjoy constitutional protection, that suspensions must satisfy the test of proportionality, that orders must be published, and that indefinite suspension is impermissible. Parliament then repealed the Indian Telegraph Act 1885, the source of the suspension power, and replaced it with section 20 of the Telecommunications Act 2023; the Telecommunications (Temporary Suspension of Services) Rules 2024 followed. The new Rules codify several of the Court's requirements, including mandatory publication and a requirement that suspension be a last resort. This article asks whether these changes have made shutdowns lawful in the full constitutional and human rights sense, or only more orderly. It reconstructs the statutory history from section 5(2) of the Telegraph Act and section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure to the 2024 Rules, analyses what Anuradha Bhasin decided and what it deliberately left open, and applies the four-stage proportionality test to the practice of shutdowns, drawing on the Manipur shutdown of 2023 and the findings of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Communications and Information Technology. It then reads Indian law against Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights, the decisions of the ECOWAS Court on shutdowns in Togo and Nigeria, and the First Amendment tradition in the United States. It concludes that the 2024 Rules improve the form of the suspension power without supplying its missing substance: independent review, a cumulative time limit, and an evidentiary burden on the State to show that a shutdown actually serves its stated aim. The article proposes reforms directed at each of these gaps.

Keywords

Internet shutdowns; Anuradha Bhasin; proportionality; Telecommunications Act 2023; freedom of expression.

Full Text:

Download Paper PDF

References

A. Constitutional Provisions, Statutes and Rules

1. Constitution of India.
2. Indian Telegraph Act 1885 (repealed).
3. Code of Criminal Procedure 1973 (repealed).
4. Information Technology Act 2000.
5. Information Technology (Procedure and Safeguards for Blocking for Access of Information by Public) Rules 2009.
6. Temporary Suspension of Telecom Services (Public Emergency or Public Safety) Rules 2017 (superseded).
7. Temporary Suspension of Telecom Services (Amendment) Rules 2020.
8. Telecommunications Act 2023.
9. Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita 2023.
10. Telecommunications (Temporary Suspension of Services) Rules 2024.
11. Communications Act of 1934 (United States), 47 USC.
12. California Public Utilities Code (United States).

B. International Instruments and Documents

1. Universal Declaration of Human Rights (adopted 10 December 1948) UNGA Res 217 A(III).
2. International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (adopted 16 December 1966, entered into force 23 March 1976) 999 UNTS 171.
3. Human Rights Committee, 'General Comment No 34: Article 19: Freedoms of Opinion and Expression' (12 September 2011) UN Doc CCPR/C/GC/34.
4. Human Rights Committee, 'General Comment No 37: Article 21: Right of Peaceful Assembly' (17 September 2020) UN Doc CCPR/C/GC/37.
5. Human Rights Council, 'Report of the Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection of the Right to Freedom of Opinion and Expression, Frank La Rue' (16 May 2011) UN Doc A/HRC/17/27.
6. Human Rights Council, 'The Promotion, Protection and Enjoyment of Human Rights on the Internet' (18 July 2016) UN Doc A/HRC/RES/32/13.
7. Human Rights Council, 'The Promotion, Protection and Enjoyment of Human Rights on the Internet' (13 July 2021) UN Doc A/HRC/RES/47/16.
8. Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, 'Internet Shutdowns: Trends, Causes, Legal Implications and Impacts on a Range of Human Rights' (13 May 2022) UN Doc A/HRC/50/55.
9. UN, OSCE, OAS and ACHPR Special Mandates on Freedom of Expression, 'Joint Declaration on Freedom of Expression and Responses to Conflict Situations' (4 May 2015).

C. Cases

1. Indian Cases
2. Anuradha Bhasin v Union of India(2020) 3 SCC 637.
3. Aribam Dhananjoy Sharma v State of Manipur(Manipur HC, order dated 7 July 2023).
4. Ashlesh Biradar v State of West Bengal(Calcutta HC, WPA(P) No 104 of 2022, order dated 10 March 2022).
5. Banashree Gogoi v Union of India(Gauhati HC, PIL No 78 of 2019, order dated 19 December 2019).
6. Banka Sneha Sheela v State of Telangana(2021) 9 SCC 415.
7. Faheema Shirin R.K. v State of Kerala2019 SCC OnLine Ker 2976.
8. Foundation for Media Professionals v Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir(2020) 5 SCC 746.
9. Foundation for Media Professionals v Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir(SC, Misc Application No 1086 of 2020, order dated 23 February 2024).
10. Gaurav Sureshbhai Vyas v State of Gujarat(Gujarat HC, Writ Petition (PIL) No 191 of 2015, 15 September 2015).
11. Hukam Chand Shyam Lal v Union of India(1976) 2 SCC 128.
12. Justice K.S. Puttaswamy (Retd) v Union of India(2017) 10 SCC 1.
13. Madhyamam Broadcasting Ltd v Union of India(2023) 13 SCC 401.
14. Modern Dental College and Research Centre v State of Madhya Pradesh(2016) 7 SCC 353.
15. Nilabati Behera v State of Orissa(1993) 2 SCC 746.
16. People's Union for Civil Liberties v Union of India(1997) 1 SCC 301.
17. Ram Manohar Lohia v State of BiharAIR 1966 SC 740.
18. Shreya Singhal v Union of India(2015) 5 SCC 1.
19. Software Freedom Law Center, India v State of Arunachal Pradesh(SC, order dated 9 September 2022).
20. Superintendent, Central Prison v Ram Manohar LohiaAIR 1960 SC 633.
21. Vishaka v State of Rajasthan(1997) 6 SCC 241.
22. Foreign and International Cases
23. Ahmet Yıldırım v TurkeyApp no 3111/10 (ECtHR, 18 December 2012).
24. Amnesty International Togo v Togolese RepublicECW/CCJ/JUD/09/20 (ECOWAS Court, 25 June 2020).
25. Association des Utilisateurs des Technologies de l'Information et de la Communication (ASUTIC) v Republic of SenegalECW/CCJ/JUD/29/25 (ECOWAS Court, 14 May 2025).
26. Cengiz v TurkeyApp nos 48226/10 and 14027/11 (ECtHR, 1 December 2015).
27. Kalda v EstoniaApp no 17429/10 (ECtHR, 19 January 2016).
28. Near v Minnesota283 US 697 (1931).
29. Packingham v North Carolina582 US 98 (2017).
30. Reno v American Civil Liberties Union521 US 844 (1997).
31. Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) v Federal Republic of Nigeria(ECOWAS Court, 14 July 2022).
32. Vladimir Kharitonov v RussiaApp no 10795/14 (ECtHR, 23 June 2020).
33. Ward v Rock Against Racism491 US 781 (1989).
34. Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights v Minister of State for National Security(High Court of Zimbabwe, 21 January 2019).

D. Parliamentary Reports

1. Standing Committee on Communications and Information Technology (2021-22), Suspension of Telecom Services/Internet and its Impact(Twenty-Sixth Report, Seventeenth Lok Sabha, 1 December 2021).
2. Standing Committee on Communications and Information Technology, Suspension of Telecom Services/Internet and its Impact: Action Taken by the Government(tabled 9 February 2023).

E. Reports and Online Sources

1. Access Now, 'Emboldened Offenders, Endangered Communities: Internet Shutdowns in 2024' (24 February 2025).
2. Access Now and #KeepItOn, Rising Repression Meets Global Resistance: Internet Shutdowns in 2025(31 March 2026).
3. Human Rights Watch and Internet Freedom Foundation, 'No Internet Means No Work, No Pay, No Food': Internet Shutdowns Deny Access to Basic Rights in 'Digital India'(14 June 2023).
4. Internet Freedom Foundation, 'A Draft to Disconnect: IFF's Analysis of the Draft Telecom Suspension Rules, 2024' (3 September 2024).
5. Internet Freedom Foundation, 'First Read on Telecommunications (Temporary Suspension of Services) Rules, 2024' (4 December 2024).
6. Internet Freedom Foundation, 'Standing Committee on IT Highlights Lack of Action Taken by the Government' (28 February 2023).
7. Kathuria R and others, The Anatomy of an Internet Blackout: Measuring the Economic Impact of Internet Shutdowns in India(Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations 2018).
8. PRS Legislative Research, 'Report Summary: Suspension of Telecom Services/Internet and its Impact'.
9. Rydzak J, 'Of Blackouts and Bandhs: The Strategy and Structure of Disconnected Protest in India' (Working Paper, Stanford Global Digital Policy Incubator, 2019).
10. 'Ministry of Communications Notifies Telecommunications (Temporary Suspension of Services) Rules, 2024' (SCC Times).
11. in, 'Telecom Suspension Rules, 2024: New Language, Same Shutdowns?' (6 June 2025).
12. in, 'A Trend of Long Internet Shutdowns in India: The Manipur Crisis' (16 October 2023).
13. in, 'SFLC.in's Writ Petition Challenging Arbitrary Internet Shutdowns During Examinations in the Supreme Court of India'.
14. 'India Records 65 Internet Shutdowns in 2025, Among Top Globally: Report' (Business Standard, 31 March 2026).
15. 'Manipur High Court Directs State Govt to Restore Internet Services Partially' (MediaNama, 10 July 2023).

Share your valuable work from Social Media Buttons