How India Handles Internet Shutdowns
India is a world leader in documented internet shutdowns — orders by state or central authorities to suspend internet access in specific geographic areas, typically during tensions, protests, security operations, or examination periods. Access Now's internet shutdown tracker and the Software Freedom Law Centre (SFLC.in) consistently document India as the top country globally for shutdown frequency.
India's shutdowns operate under two primary legal authorities: Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (now Section 163 BNSS), which empowers District Magistrates to prohibit activities posing risk to public order; and the Temporary Suspension of Telecom Services (Public Emergency or Public Safety) Rules, 2017, under the Indian Telegraph Act (now Telecommunications Act, 2023), which empower state Home Secretaries and the Secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs to direct telecom service suspension.
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| Representational Visualisation: How India Handles Internet Shutdowns |
The Court held that internet shutdown orders must satisfy the proportionality test (necessary for the stated objective; least restrictive measure available); must be in writing and subject to periodic review; and must be subject to judicial review.
Despite this landmark judgment, India's shutdown
frequency has not declined; the Jackson School's Cybersecurity Profile (2025)
noted that shutdowns continue "repressing internet freedom" as an
identified challenge in India's digital landscape.
What You Need to Know
- India's
shutdown frequency: consistently documented as the highest globally by
Access Now; Jammu and Kashmir, Manipur, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh
account for the largest share; shutdowns are ordered for: communal
tensions (most common), political protests, elections (particularly in
J&K), examination fraud prevention, and security operations.
- Economic
cost: a single-day internet shutdown in a major Indian city costs
approximately ₹500 crore in economic activity (various studies); the
cumulative economic cost of J&K's extended shutdowns (including the
2019–2020 period) has been estimated in thousands of crores; the Internet
Freedom Foundation tracks shutdown economic impact.
- Telecom
Suspension Rules 2017: Home Secretary of a state or central Home Secretary
must issue the suspension order; the order must be reviewed within 5
working days by a Review Committee comprising the Chief Secretary, Law
Secretary, and Finance Secretary; the Review Committee check has not
prevented frequent shutdowns; review meetings are typically procedural
ratifications of executive orders.
- Operation
Sindoor shutdowns (May 2025): internet shutdowns were ordered in border
areas and conflict-affected zones during India's military operation
against Pakistan and the subsequent standoff period; access restrictions
compounded the media freedom concerns documented in Label 7.
- Examination-related
shutdowns: India's Rajasthan, UP, and other states have ordered multi-day
internet shutdowns during UPSC and state civil service examinations to
prevent cheating; these "examination shutdowns" are among the
most economically bizarre applications of the shutdown power, penalising
millions to prevent a small number from cheating.
How It Works in Practice
1. The shutdown order process: A state government's
Home Secretary (or central Home Secretary) signs a written order invoking the
Telecom Suspension Rules directing telecom service providers to suspend
internet services in a specified area for a specified period; telecom companies
are required to comply immediately; the order must be reviewed within 5 working
days by a Review Committee; in practice, review is nearly always confirmatory
rather than independent.
2. The proportionality test and its non-enforcement:
The Anuradha Bhasin judgment's proportionality requirement has not been
effectively enforced; state governments continue ordering blanket internet
shutdowns — affecting entire districts for days or weeks — without
demonstrating that targeted, narrower restrictions (specific platforms,
specific times of day) were considered and rejected; courts have accepted
government national security certifications without extensive proportionality
analysis in most cases.
3. Economic and social costs beyond direct economic
activity: Internet shutdowns affect: telemedicine access (patients unable
to consult doctors remotely); DBT payments to welfare beneficiaries
(state-operated portals inaccessible); students' access to online educational
materials; journalists' ability to report; online businesses' operations; and
banking and payment services. The cascade of these secondary effects on
already-marginalised communities — who depend on digital services for welfare
access — is disproportionately severe.
4. Targeted versus blanket shutdowns: The Supreme
Court's Anuradha Bhasin judgment contemplated that targeted restrictions
(specific platforms, specific services) should be considered before blanket
shutdowns; in practice, blanket shutdowns — cutting all internet services
across an entire district — are the norm because they are administratively
simpler and their breadth provides maximum control of information flow, which
is often the actual objective.
5. The J&K internet shutdown as an extreme case:
Jammu and Kashmir's internet restrictions following the August 2019 revocation
of J&K's special status lasted in varying forms for 18+ months; India's
SFLC documented the shutdown as the longest internet shutdown in a democracy on
record; the Internet Freedom Foundation filed petitions documenting the
economic devastation; the Supreme Court's review orders addressed J&K
specifically but the fundamental shutdown authority remains intact.
What People Often Misunderstand
- Internet
shutdowns have a constitutional basis in India: The Telecom Suspension
Rules and Section 144 provide statutory authority for internet shutdowns;
they are not constitutionally impermissible; the constitutional
requirement is proportionality and procedural compliance, not prohibition.
- The
Supreme Court has set standards it does not fully enforce: The
Anuradha Bhasin judgment set important standards; but subsequent shutdown
orders that arguably violate these standards have not been systematically
challenged or consistently enforced by courts; the gap between judicial
standards and administrative practice is real.
- BNSS
(replacing CrPC from July 2024) includes Section 163 with similar powers:
The new criminal code did not remove the magistracy's internet shutdown
authority; Section 163 BNSS maintains and slightly clarifies the Section
144 power; the underlying shutdown authority survives the criminal law
reform.
- Exam
shutdowns are a policy choice with alternatives: The decision to shut
down the internet across entire states during examinations rather than
deploy proctoring technology, conduct examinations in supervised centres,
or address other means of cheating reflects policy choices about ease of
administration rather than necessity; the proportionality test should
disqualify exam shutdowns, but it has not.
- Most
shutdowns are never judicially reviewed in practice: Despite the
Supreme Court's direction that shutdown orders be reviewable, most are
never challenged in courts; the population most affected (rural and
semi-urban users, often poor) lacks the resources and access to litigate;
shutdowns persist because their costs fall on those without judicial
access.
What Changes Over Time
The Telecommunications Act, 2023 — which replaced the Indian
Telegraph Act and provides the statutory basis for Telecom Suspension Rules —
includes a provision that the government may prescribe more detailed
guidelines; these guidelines, when issued, may either strengthen or weaken the
proportionality requirements; civil society is monitoring the rulemaking
process.
Sources and Further Reading
- Jackson
School — India Cybersecurity 2025: https://jsis.washington.edu/news/cybersecurity-profile-2025-india/
- Wikipedia
— Freedom of the press in India: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_the_press_in_India
- ITIF
— India Content Moderation: https://itif.org/publications/2025/06/09/india-content-moderation-regulation/
- Internet
Freedom Foundation: https://internetfreedom.in
- SFLC.in
— Shutdown tracker: https://internetshutdowns.in