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Srinagar: Doda district, in the Chenab valley of the Union Territory (UT) of Jammu and Kashmir, has become the latest district to prohibit the use of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), with the administration ordering a two-month blanket ban on the service.

The order issued by the district administration cited cyber security, unlawful online activity and threats to public order as some of the key reasons for the restriction. District Magistrate Doda, Krishan Lal, issued the order on September 5 under Section 163 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), 2023.

The order has raised serious concerns among internet and privacy rights experts. Rudraksh Lakra, a Delhi-based lawyer and policy analyst, questioned the legal basis of the order and argued that Section 163 of the BNSS may not be the appropriate mechanism for imposing such a restriction.

“Section 163 is a colonial-era relic, and its broad wording has repeatedly been abused,” Larka told The Wire. “The provision specifically governing blocking of online content is Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, 2000, which sets out narrower grounds for blocking and comes with procedural safeguards that Section 163 lacks,” he said. Further, it is contested whether even the IT Act Section 69A can be used to ban an entire platform.

Larka also questioned whether a restriction covering an entire district for two months could satisfy the proportionality test. “The VPN ban applies across an entire district and lasts over two months, making it a blanket ban in both scope and duration. Restrictions of this kind raise serious constitutional concerns within the proportionality doctrine, because they invert the relationship between the right and the exception, treating the restriction as the norm and the right as the carve-out, rather than the other way around,” he said.

In the order, the Doda administration mentioned that it had received reports of VPNs being misused by certain individuals and groups. But it did not mention who these “individuals and groups” are.

DM Doda Krishan Lal’s order banning VPN use across the district under Section 163 BNSS, citing misuse to bypass cyber restrictions and access prohibited content. It says violators shall face........

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