India investigates website blocks based on forged court orders

NEW DELHI: India has launched an investigation into how telecoms officials ordered the blocking of websites on the basis of forged court documents, raising concerns about weaknesses in the country’s internet censorship system.

Police have also sought official records from the telecoms ministry as part of a criminal investigation into the incident, officials said on Thursday.

The controversy emerged after India’s telecoms ministry directed internet service providers earlier this year to block 129 illegal betting websites. However, an investigation found that the blocking instructions were based on fabricated court orders allegedly sent by fraudsters posing as lawyers.

The fake documents were issued in the names of the Rajasthan and Allahabad high courts. The revelations have raised questions about the verification procedures followed by government officials before enforcing website restrictions.

A government official familiar with the matter said the telecoms ministry had initiated an internal inquiry to examine its procedures and introduce additional safeguards before acting on court orders.

The official warned that the absence of proper verification could also put legitimate websites at risk of being blocked through fraudulent legal documents.

The ministry is also attempting to identify those responsible for sending the emails containing the forged orders. It plans to withdraw the blocking directives issued on their basis and remove the related documents from its website.

However, as of Thursday, the correspondence and copies of the allegedly fraudulent orders remained publicly accessible.

Meanwhile, police have launched a criminal investigation after the Allahabad High Court confirmed that an order attributed to it had never been issued by the court.

According to police documents, the fabricated order contained a fake court logo, seal and QR code.

Ghanshyam Yadav, a cybercrime official in Uttar Pradesh, said investigators had requested information about the ministry’s content management system and digital records to establish how the fraudulent documents were processed.

Police have submitted 24 questions to the telecoms ministry, seeking details that could help identify those behind the incident and determine the next course of action.

The case has also highlighted wider concerns about the growing use of fabricated and artificial intelligence-generated legal material.

India’s Supreme Court struck down a tribunal decision in July after finding that it relied on non-existent judicial rulings. A similar controversy emerged in the United States in June, when a judge disqualified lawyers over fabricated legal citations.

Following the latest revelations, opposition politicians and activists have called for stricter verification of judicial documents before authorities issue website-blocking orders.

Opposition politician Saket Gokhale criticised the ministry for failing to authenticate the purported court orders, warning that the incident exposed serious weaknesses in the system.