The Supreme Court on Friday sought a response from the Centre to a plea alleging arbitrary internet shutdowns in Arunachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan and West Bengal, saying it wants to know whether there exists any protocol on the issue. A bench comprising Chief Justice Uday Umesh Lalit and Justices S Ravindra Bhat and P S Narasimha said instead of issuing notices to the four states, which have been made parties to the petition, it would rather issue notice to the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY). We issue a notice only to the Centre (MeitY), the Union to indicate whether there are standard protocols with respect to grievance raised, said the bench. It was alleged in the PIL, filed by Software Law Center, that internet services have been shut down even for preventing cheating in some competitive examinations. Lawyer Vrinda Grover told the bench that petitions were filed in high courts in Calcutta and Rajasthan. Why can't you move the High Courts? You h
The government in 2019 had said emergency internet shutdowns were a matter for states in the interest of law and order
Internet services across 27 districts of Assam were suspended for over four hours on Sunday for the second time this month to prevent possible malpractices during a written examination for recruitment in various state government departments. After completion of the examination, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said that fees of unsuccessful candidates will be sent to their bank accounts. The authorities decided to go ahead with their decision to suspend internet services during exam hours, after the Gauhati High Court refused to stay it following a writ petition against the order. Besides, prohibitory orders under Section 144 have been clamped in all the 27 districts where the examinations were conducted, a senior official said. Overall, more than 14.30 lakh candidates are expected to appear in three days for the recruitment test to fill up nearly 30,000 Grade III and IV posts in various government departments. While the Grade-IV tests were held on August 21 in two shifts, the
According to the order, some anti-social elements are using social media to transmit hate speeches inciting the passions of the public
Rajasthan is second after Jammu and Kashmir when it comes to suspending net service over law and order issues
With the situation gradually returning to normal, the curfew will be relaxed for 10 hours on Sunday, the officials said.
The situation in West Bengal's Howrah district, which on Friday witnessed violent protests against controversial remarks of suspended BJP spokespersons, was peaceful on Saturday morning
Two people died during the violent protest that erupted in Ranchi after Friday prayers against the controversial remarks on Prophet Muhammad made by Nupur Sharma and Naveen Jindal
All internet services were temporarily suspended in Ranchi till 6 am on Saturday i.e June 11, in wake of protests in the city on Friday over controversial remarks on Prophet Muhammad
Tension mounted in the Doda and Kishtwar areas of the Jammu region prompting authorities to impose a curfew there while parts of Kashmir observed a shutdown, officials said
Several Airtel users in India reportedly faced Internet and signal outage on Thursday. However, the company said it has restored the services.
After India, Myanmar imposed the highest total number of shutdowns in 2021, with 15 disruptions, followed by Sudan and Iran with five shutdowns in each country
In 2021, an hour of shutdown cost the country $0.5 mn; in 2020, it was $0.31 mn
Since Saturday morning, Jio's subscribers in Mumbai have been unable to make or receive calls or access internet
Internet shutdowns can throw normal life out of gear. India lost an estimated $2.8 billion last year due to the internet blockades, which was unwanted in most cases. This report finds out more
Will vaccine crunch hurt India's fight against Covid-19? Internet shutdowns bleeding Indian businesses? What RBI policy means to the markets? What's the new lock-in period for IPOs? All answers here
When the government's thrust is on digitisation, frequent suspension of the internet on flimsy grounds is uncalled for and must be avoided, a parliamentary panel has said.
Authorities have shut down the internet in some areas of Kashmir while police seized a large number of two-wheelers ahead of Union Home Minister Amit Shah's likely visit to the Valley this weekend
Central forces were deployed, mobile Internet services suspended and prohibitory orders banning gathering of people were imposed here on Monday, a day ahead of the gherao planned by farmers
Multiple users complained about an outage affecting Alphabet Inc's search engine Google as well as its streaming and email services, according to outage monitoring website Downdetector