The Supreme Court on Friday, September 9, 2022, directed the Union Ministry of Communication and Information Technology to respond to a petition alleging indiscriminate shutdown of internet facility to prevent cheating in exams.
A three-judge Bench led by Chief Justice of India U.U. Lalit issued notice to the Union Ministry and asked it to respond on whether there is any standard protocol and the level and method of adherence to it during public exams.
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The court listed the case after three weeks.
Advocates Vrinda Grover and Prasanna S., for Software Freedom Law Center, said the internet shutdown orders are passed behind a veil of secrecy. Usually such orders are passed under the Indian Telegraph Act. However, public access to them has proved to be next to impossible despite the Supreme Court directing transparency in the Anuradha Bhasin judgment.
“Internet shutdowns are meant as a measure to counter public emergency. Shutting down the internet to ‘prevent cheating in exams’, when even access to basic facilities and welfare measures from retail shopping to NREGA wages are linked online, is against any sense of proportionality… They can rely on jammers or even frisking instead,” Ms. Grover said, saying the petitioner is a real-time internet shutdown tracker.
The Bench said using jammers at every exam centre may not be cost-effective.
The petitions have already made Gujarat, Rajasthan, West Bengal and Arunachal Pradesh respondents in the case. However, the court has, for the time being, issued notice only to the Ministry after making it a respondent in the case.
The court initially asked the petitioner to approach the respective High Courts of the States in case of individual instances of shutdown.
The Bench said a general declaratory order from the apex court may not help. “Nevertheless we would like to know from the Ministry about the protocol,” the Bench said.
