IFF condemns the internet shutdown in parts of Central Delhi. No suspension order has been made public.
The Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF) condemns the suspension of mobile internet services imposed today, 20 July 2026, in parts of Central Delhi, including the area around Jantar Mantar. The shutdown coincided with the ‘Chalo Sansad’ march called by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) on the opening day of the Monsoon Session of Parliament, where thousands of students and young people had gathered to press their demands. Permission for the march was refused. Prohibitory orders were imposed under Section 163 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023. Routes to Parliament were sealed, and metro stations including Patel Chowk, Rajiv Chowk and Janpath were closed. Amid reports of the use of force to disperse protesters, mobile internet was then switched off, reportedly “as a precautionary measure”. We urge the immediate restoration of all telecommunication services in the capital and an end to internet shutdowns across India.
The developments of today are of immense consequence to the future of our democracy. The voices gathered at Jantar Mantar, and the residents of the national capital, need to be heard the loudest, not silenced en masse.
No order has been made public
At the time of release of this statement, no copy of any suspension order has been published by the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Department of Telecommunications, the Government of NCT of Delhi or the Delhi Police. Residents of the capital do not know which authority directed the shutdown, on what grounds, over which precise areas, for which services, or for what duration. An unpublished order is an unaccountable order. It cannot be challenged before a court, and the judicial review guaranteed by the Supreme Court becomes illusory. Some reports further indicate the deployment of network jammers in parts of Central Delhi, including near Jantar Mantar. Jamming equipment finds no sanction in the legal framework for the suspension of telecommunication services at all. If jammers were deployed, the government must disclose under what legal authority.
Binding safeguards violated
On 10 January 2020, the Supreme Court in Anuradha Bhasin v. Union of India, (2020) 3 SCC 637 held that the freedom of speech and expression, and the freedom to carry on trade or business through the medium of the internet, are protected under Articles 19(1)(a) and 19(1)(g) of the Constitution. The Court directed that every order suspending telecom services must be published. Reasons must be recorded in writing. The restriction must be proportionate, adopting the least restrictive measure available. It cannot continue indefinitely. It is subject to judicial review, and to scrutiny by a review committee.
Parliament has since replaced the framework of the Indian Telegraph Act, 1885. Under Section 20(2)(b) of the Telecommunications Act, 2023, telecommunication services may be suspended only on the occurrence of a public emergency or in the interest of public safety, on the grounds specified in that provision, and for reasons recorded in writing. The Telecommunications (Temporary Suspension of Services) Rules, 2024, notified on 22 November 2024, give effect to this power. A suspension order may be issued only by the Union Home Secretary or the State Home Secretary. An officer not below the rank of Joint Secretary may act in unavoidable circumstances, subject to confirmation by the competent authority within twenty four hours. Every order must clearly define the geographical area and the specific services suspended, and cannot remain in operation beyond fifteen days. Every order must also be published. A Review Committee must meet within five days of the order and record its findings on whether it complies with Section 20(2).
These safeguards are not being followed
If we account for today’s shutdown against this legal architecture. The order is unpublished, in breach of Anuradha Bhasin and the Suspension Rules, 2024 alike. No recorded reasons are available to the public despite little to no reports of violence and consistent calls for the protest to be peaceful by the CJP and other organisers. The precise areas and services covered are undisclosed and so is the duration. Whether the competent authority even issued the order cannot be known. Whether the Review Committee will examine it cannot be verified. While the Suspension Rules prescribe no outer time limit for publication, a gap we have previously flagged, it cannot cut against the spirit of the Anuradha Bhasin judgement. A blanket suspension across densely populated parts of the capital, imposed as a “precaution” against a march to Parliament, is the opposite of a narrowly tailored, least restrictive measure. A shutdown timed to a protest restricts the freedoms of speech and assembly at the very moment they matter most.
The human cost of a shutdown
Access to the internet is a digital right on which the exercise of our fundamental freedoms now depends. When the network goes dark in Central Delhi, a journalist at Jantar Mantar cannot file her report or broadcast live. A street vendor on the surrounding roads cannot accept a UPI payment. A gig worker loses a day’s earnings. A parent cannot confirm that a child who joined the march is safe. Cutting off communications prevents people from reaching out for help and manufactures panic in a moment which demands calm. These costs fall hardest on daily wage earners and small traders who can least absorb them. Internet based communications also promote trust between people and their government.
A pattern, not an aberration
Delhi has seen this before. On 19 December 2019, mobile services were suspended for the first time in the capital’s history during the protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, in areas including Seelampur, Jamia Nagar and Mandi House. On 26 January 2021, the Ministry of Home Affairs suspended internet services in Singhu, Ghazipur, Tikri, Mukarba Chowk, Nangloi and their adjoining areas during the farmers’ protests. According to the #KeepItOn coalition’s report released in March 2026, India recorded 65 internet shutdowns in 2025, the highest of any democracy in the world, and accounts for 920 of the 2,102 shutdowns documented globally since 2016. We have consistently advocated against the harm these disruptions cause, from Jammu and Kashmir to Rajasthan, and from Haryana to Manipur, where a shutdown in 2023 ran for over two hundred days. The orders are rarely published on time, and the findings of review committees never see daylight.
Our demands
We call upon the Government of India and the Government of NCT of Delhi to:
1. Immediately restore all suspended telecommunication and internet services in Central Delhi.
2. Publish forthwith every suspension order passed on or around 20 July 2026, together with the reasons recorded in writing, as mandated by Anuradha Bhasin and the Telecommunications (Temporary Suspension of Services) Rules, 2024.
3. Disclose the issuing authority, the grounds, the precise areas and services covered, and the period of operation, and clarify whether network jammers were deployed and under what legal authority.
4. Place the order before the Review Committee within five days as required by the Rules, and make its findings public.
5. Reform Section 20(2)(b) of the Telecommunications Act, 2023 to provide for independent prior authorisation and real consequences for unlawful suspensions.
IFF will file applications under the Right to Information Act, 2005 seeking copies of the suspension orders and the records of the Review Committee, and is examining further legal remedies.
Delhi and all of India deserve better.