Uttar Pradesh Police have registered an FIR against unidentified persons after a purportedly forged Allahabad High Court order was allegedly used to procure the blocking of 95 websites by the Union government, raising concerns over the misuse of judicial documents to secure online content restrictions.
The case has been registered under Sections 318(2), 336(2), 336(3), 337, 338 and 340(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), which deal with cheating, forgery and the use of forged documents as genuine, including documents purporting to be court records.
The FIR was lodged on November 6 following a complaint submitted by a Joint Registrar of the Allahabad High Court. The complaint was filed pursuant to a direction issued by the Chief Justice on November 3, after the Court’s administrative inquiry established that the judicial order relied upon for blocking the websites had never been passed.
The controversy came to light after Reuters technology correspondent Munsif Vengattil contacted the High Court administration on October 30, seeking verification of a purported order that he had located on the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) website.
The document, bearing the date August 14, 2026, purportedly reflected an order passed by Justice Garima Prashad in a writ petition. It was subsequently relied upon by the DoT in a communication dated September 2, directing internet service providers to block 95 websites allegedly involved in streaming fake Indian Premier League (IPL) matches and operating betting platforms.
The purported order had reportedly been forwarded to the telecommunications department by a person identifying himself as advocate Kartikey Pandey.
Following the Reuters query, the High Court administration initiated an internal verification exercise through the Registrar (Judicial)/Computer. The inquiry revealed that no writ petition corresponding to the case number mentioned in the document existed in the Court’s records. Further, no order dated August 14, 2026, could be traced in the relevant judicial proceedings.
The private secretary to Justice Garima Prashad also confirmed that the judge had not passed any such order.
In view of these findings, the High Court administration approached the police, alleging that unknown persons had fabricated a judicial document and presented it as an authentic court order to facilitate the blocking of the websites.
The investigation is expected to examine the circumstances in which the purported judicial direction was transmitted to the DoT and subsequently acted upon by the authorities.
The episode has also drawn attention to a separate instance involving an allegedly fabricated Rajasthan High Court order, which was used to secure the blocking of 34 websites in July. Taken together, the two purported orders resulted in the blocking of 129 websites.
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